Lloyds plunges to £3.5bn loss for 2011

Four former executives of Lloyds Banking Group who last week had part of their bonuses clawed back as a result of an insurance mis-selling scandal may now be in line to receive shares worth £2.2m for completing the takeover of the troubled HBOS bank. Former chief executive Eric Daniels, former head of retail Helen Weir, former insurance boss Archie Kane, and Truett Tate, former corporate banking head, could have shares that were awarded to them three years ago released in April. Earlier this week all four had bonuses "clawed back" after the bank took a £3.2bn provision to cover compensation payments for mis-selling payment protection insurance. That provision plunged the bank to a £3.5bn loss for 2011. With the three year integration of HBOS complete, after the loss 28,000 jobs and £3.2bn of integration costs, the chairman, Sir Win Bischoff, admitted that "with the benefit of hindsight now, obviously it [the merger] has not been as good an idea as people thought at the time - and that includes all the shareholders who voted in favour of it". Bischoff was being asked about the losses caused by HBOS, rescued by Lloyds during September 2008, rather the process of integration, which has achieved its target to save £2bn a year. The precise payouts to executives will be known in future annual reports, but the latest information for 2010 shows that the two sets of performance criteria attached to the "April 2009 Integration Award" had been "met or exceeded". One target is based on cost savings, while the other is linked to non-financial measures - although the bank's remuneration committee may decide not to allow all, or even any, of the shares to be released. Daniels, who last week saw £580,000 of bonus payments clawed back, stands to receive most shares, worth some £800,000 at current prices. Other so-called long-term incentive plans have not paid out since 2006. "Outstanding long-term incentive awards will continue to vest at the end of the relevant three-year performance period to the extent the performance conditions have been met," said a Lloyds spokeswoman . Despite the £3.5bn of losses, the bank is paying £375m in bonuses, down 30% on a year ago. The average bonus across the 100,000 workforce stands at £3,900, while the executives are taking an average 50% cut to their bonuses. At 35.73p the shares were the biggest fallers in the FTSE 100, down 2.3%. The drop has left the taxpayer with a £10bn loss on the 41% stake in the bank, amid concerns about its forecasts this year for profitability, measured by so-called net interest margin. "The outlook statement contains quite a few home truths," said Ian Gordon, banks analyst at Investec. Chief executive, António Horta-Osório, reiterated that the prolonged low interest rate environment would mean some key targets would not be met on time, but the bank would benefit from a faster than expected reduction in impairment charges during 2012. The outlook was a "not a profit warning" and just "realistic" about the economy, where he expects house prices to be "broadly flat" for the next two years, with "fairly modest" growth in the economy in the second half. Base rates will stay at 0.5% into 2013, and unemployment rise and then peak at 9% next year. Horta-Osório had earmarked a further 15,000 job cuts when he took over a year ago and embarked on a clean-out of the previous management team. But the bank stressed that a further £200m of cost savings now identified for 2014 would not result in further redundancies. Horta-Osório returned to work last month after a two-month absence brought on when he could not sleep for five days in October, and he joked that he was sleeping "like a baby". He waived any bonus for 2011 because of his absence. When Horta-Osório's predecessor, Daniels, bowed out last February, he heralded a £2.2bn profit for 2010, using his preferred measure which stripped out the costs of the takeover. The 2011 loss of £3.5bn compares with a profit of £281m a year ago, while on Daniels' measure the profits were up 21% at £2.7bn. Tim Tookey, the finance director, has left for a new job, is losing 25% of his bonus and there will be a gap until May when his successor, George Culmer will join from insurer RSA. Tookey, whose integration bonus has lapsed on his resignation, said he "completely respected" the decision of the Lloyds remuneration committee to reduce his bonus, while Horta-Osório said his previous employer, Santander, which also took a hit for PPI mis-selling during his tenure, had not notified him of any intention to claw back any bonuses he may have received. While the European Ccommission restriction on paying dividends, put in place at the time of the taxpayer bailout, have has now been lifted, the bank admitted that it was "unclear" when it might be able to start doing so. The bank also revealed the FSA enforcement investigation into the corporate division of Bank of Scotland was "ongoing". It could lead to fines and reprimands. From: the guardian