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* Lloyds gets capital boost from $5 bln U.S. RMBS deal
* Bank also looks to sell $500 mln shipping loan portfolio
* Portfolio sale follows recovery in U.S. housing market
* Lloyds continues to sell non-core assets, bolster capital
By Jonathan Saul and Tommy Wilkes
LONDON, May 31 (Reuters) - State-backed British bank Lloyds sold a book of U.S. mortgage-backed securities for 3.3billion pounds ($5 billion), boosting its capital by 1.4 billionpounds and taking it close to a target set by the financialregulator.
Lloyds is also looking to sell a $500 million portfolio ofshipping loans to shrink its exposure to the troubled maritimeindustry, as it gets rid of unwanted assets, trade financesources told Reuters.
Shipping loans are proving the most difficult assets formany banks to sell after a five year industry slump, and Lloydsstill has about 7 billion pounds of loans to the sector.
"Lloyds has been trying to sell off another portion of their(shipping) loan book and they have been trying to do it belowthe parapet using specialists," one industry source said. "Theyare taking a piecemeal approach to selling their overall loanbook."
In October sources told Reuters Lloyds took a near-50percent loss on a $750 million portfolio of shipping loans soldto U.S. private equity firm Oaktree Capital.
Shipping companies ordered large numbers of new vesselsbetween 2007 and 2009, when freight rates hit record highs, butthe extra capacity arrived just as Europe's recession wasdeepening and other economies were slowing.
Lloyds declined to comment on its shipping portfolio.
Since a 2008 bailout by the British government, which nowowns 39 percent of Lloyds, the bank has been under pressure fromlawmakers and regulators to make lending to British householdsand businesses a priority.
Lloyds said on Friday it would make a pre-tax gain of about540 million pounds from the sale of a portfolio of U.S.residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) to a number ofbuyers, including Goldman Sachs.
The deal will increase its core capital ratio by 47 basispoints, based on Basel III rules being implemented, as the saleis at a premium to the value at which Lloyds holds the loansafter previously taking losses on them.
The Lloyds TSB pension fund also sold its share of the RMBSportfolio, making a gain of 360 million pounds to reduce thedeficit in the scheme.
The loans were sold at about a 20 percent discount to thenominal value of the portfolio, a person familiar with thematter said. Reports had said the RMBS portfolio up for sale hada nominal value of more than $8 billion.
The sale comes as a recovery strengthens in the U.S. housingmarket, with prices posting their largest gain in March sincethe peak of a housing boom in 2006.
Goldman Sachs bought 170 million pounds worth of the RMBSfor around 200 million pounds in cash, Lloyds said.
Lloyds has been selling businesses that are not part of itscore activities, while boosting its capital in preparation foran eventual sale of the UK government's stake.
The sale of shares in UK wealth manager St.James's Place last week boosted its capital by 500 million pounds andthe bank has also sold its Spanish retail banking operations andits international private banking arm.
Britain's financial regulator has told Lloyds and rivalRoyal Bank of Scotland to shore up their capital,allowing them to do so by selling assets and continuing toshrink their bloated balance sheets.
Lloyds' recent deals should lift its core capital ratio to8.7 percent, from 8.1 percent at the end of March and near toits target of 9 percent by the end of this year.
It aims to cut its "non-core" loan book to under 70 billionpounds by the end of 2014, from 92 billion at the end of Marchand 141 billion at the end of 2011.
Lloyds shares closed up 0.5 percent at 62.11 pence.
