Lloyds Report Good Pre-Tax Profits

The Lloyds Banking Group, comparative to last year’s less pleasant recordings, have a pre-tax profit of £2.1bn. This has been recorded despite the bank deciding to store £500m in light of the PPI compensation claims that appear to be never-ending and are now recorded as totalling £7.3bn.

“The state-backed bank said it had made a statutory pre-tax profit of £2.1bn in the first six months of 2013, compared to a loss in the same period last year of £456m.

The profit also reverses a £150m loss for the second half of 2012.

Lloyds said it had spent £1.28bn so far this year dealing with the claims, including £380m on the administration of the compensation process.

The bank, 39pc owned by the government, said it will start talks with regulators in the coming months about restarting its dividend.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, the Lloyds' chief executive, said in statement: 'We are now well on track to create a bank with a leading cost position, lower risk, a lower cost of equity, and products and services focused on our customers' needs, to deliver strong, stable and sustainable returns to our shareholders.'

Bad debts at Lloyds fell 43pc to £1.8bn.

The government is expected to start offloading its £20bn stake in the bank with a sale of around a quarter of its shares.

Mr Horta-Osorio said that the lender was now in a position to enable the state to reduce its stake.

'It is up to the government to decide how and when to do it. I believe we have completed the first phase ... the share price is now in a position where the government can return taxpayers' money at a profit,' he said.

The shares sale could start as early as next month.

George Osborne said in his Mansion House speech in June that the Government was "actively considering options for share sales. He added: 'Of course, we will only proceed if we get value for the taxpayer.'

Lloyds shares rose 4.5 - or 6.6pc - to 73p in early trading on Thursday, well above the 61.2p break-even threshold set by the Treasury for a disposal of some of the state's holding.

Mr Horta-Osorio must see at least one-third of the state's holding sold at above 61.2p or the bank's share price rise above 73.6p by 2018 in order to receive his annual bonus. The clauses were inserted this year following discussions between Lloyds and the government.

The Lloyds chief said the hopes to float TSB Bank by mid 2014. The initial public offering follows the collapse of the sale of 600 branches to the Co-operative Group. The disposal was imposed by Brussels following the state bailout of the lender during the 2008 financial crisis.”

Lloyds have been in the headlines a lot recently in light of the new European Union laws regarding domination of the banking sector in the UK and this is just another thing for the group to be pleased with.

If you are a new or existing Lloyds customer and would like to speak with a member of their customer services department regarding any of the products and services they offer or anything discussed in this article, contact their customer services department via the Lloyds TSB contact number. You can also read more about Lloyds and the repercussions of the new European laws Here.

This article was originally sourced from The Telegraph. 

Banking Customer Services

Now, if there was ever an establishment that demanded exceptional customer service it was banks. At first the connotations that derive from the phrase ‘customer service’ all surround a similar image – a company and their employees doing all they can to ensure a customer’s satisfaction with their visit to the business. This is taken one step further when transferred into the realms of banks.

Much like parents with their children, people with their money are unique and particular. Everyone has a slightly different opinion on the best way to keep their money or invest it and so on but basically everyone has a bank and everyone wants their money guaranteed to be there when they wish to withdraw it. This is incorporated into the umbrella of customer service – anything that includes dealing with a customer and/or their possessions is integral to customer service and certain standards of this service must be adhered to.

Banks are more than banks as well, you put your trust in them to undertake any dealings with your money – whether it is to send, receive or retain it – but you also trust them to advise you with things such as credit cards, mortgages, personal loans, home, car and contents insurance therefore they need to prove themselves to be trustworthy.

Since the invention of the cash machine – yet another example of a modern invention that has removed the need for a human to communicate with another human – it is rare in this day and age that people spend much time in banks speaking with the employees, but when they do it is vital that they receive high customer service. The way the high street has gone is that most of the shops all offer very similar products and services but with a slightly different, unique edge that tries to out-do the other shops; this is exactly the same for banks. As was previously stated, the vast majority of people have a bank and with there being a certain number of banks on the high street, the level of customer service has to be exceptionally high to beat the other competition.

The implications of poor customer service in the banking world are much greater than just losing customers. Not only does a loss of customers mean a dent in the bank’s reputation which will lead to more customers leaving or not choosing to join, it can also result in legal implications. If a bank makes a fatal mistake with customers’ money they are within their rights to take legal proceedings in order to relinquish these funds.

For more information on the customer service offered by banks, contact Lloyds TSB.