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* Profit falls to 1.2 billion pounds but beats consensus
* Bank aims to cut office space by 20%
* Lender targets push in insurance, wealth
By Iain Withers and Lawrence White
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group's
outgoing Chief Executive Ant贸nio Horta-Os贸rio set out fresh
targets to expand the lender's insurance and wealth business and
further cut costs, as the bank resumed a dividend despite a
sharp fall in profits for 2020.
Britain's biggest domestic lender reported pretax profits of
1.2 billion pounds ($1.7 billion), well down on 4.4 billion
pounds the previous year, after pandemic lockdowns shrank
household spending and drove up provisions for bad loans.
But it still beat the average of analyst forecasts of 905
million pounds.
Horta-Os贸rio, who is leaving Lloyds after a decade running
the bank to stand for election as chairman of Credit Suisse
in April, said the bank would increase funds from
insurance and wealth customers by 25 billion pounds by 2023.
Lloyds will also cut office space by 20% within three years,
the second British lender to unveil such plans this week after
HSBC announced a 40% cut to its footprint as banks look to
capitalise on remote working habits brought on by the pandemic.
Lloyds said its overall costs would be trimmed below 7.5
billion pounds by the end of this year.
HSBC executive Charlie Nunn is set to replace Horta-Os贸rio,
and will start in August, the bank said.
Similar to rivals HSBC, NatWest and
Barclays, Lloyds' profits were dented by a dip in
customer spending and wafer thin central bank interest rates.
Lloyds set aside 4.2 billion pounds to cover loans expected
to sour, which was less than the 4.5 billion to 5.5 billion
pound range previously given.
The bank said it would pay a 0.57 pence dividend per share,
the maximum allowed by the Bank of England and above a forecast
of 0.53 pence.
Like other banks, Lloyds was forced by the Bank of England
to suspend payouts last year to shore up its finances in the
pandemic.
The bank's core capital ratio, a key measure of financial
resilience, increased to 16.2% compared to 15.2% in September.
Horta-Os贸rio's pay package for 2020 fell to 3.4 million
pound, after he and other executives waived bonuses for the year
due to the pandemic. He was paid 4.7 million pounds the previous
year.
($1 = 0.7048 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers and Lawrence White; Editing by
Edmund Blair)
