LLOY is slipping off again, can't hold on to its gain... I can't see much in these 'robust plans' when the whole EU is against us now.

The Bank of England is said to be planning cuts to bank’s capital requirements as early as next week.
According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the central bank’s Financial Policy Committee is looking to reverse a decision taken in March to raise the counter-cyclical capital buffer for UK exposures to 0.5% of risk-weighted assets from zero to help lenders withstand the fallout from the vote to leave the European Union.
That increase, which was meant to become binding from 29 March 2017, was designed to guard against the cycle of banks boosting lending in good times and slashing credit in a downturn.
It was understood that Tuesday’s FPC meeting was dominated by discussions about the stability implications of Brexit. Officials are due to release a statement alongside their bi-annual Financial Stability Report on 5 July, while Bank of England governor Mark Carney will host a press conference that day.
On Thursday, Carney said the FPC will “take any further actions it deems appropriate to support financial stability”.
He suggested the central bank would implement further interest rate cuts over the summer to support the economy after the Brexit vote, noting that the economic outlook had deteriorated.
"The Committee will make an initial assessment on 14 July, and a full assessment complete with a new forecast will follow in the August Inflation Report," Carney said.
"In August, we will also discuss further the range of instruments at our disposal.”

54.56p

Has LLOY finally decided to move forward once more after the last couple days of profit taking?

Still going down ,when to buy ?

jimmy b - As to when to buy, I think it depends how you view the current state of play and how balanced your total potfolio is imo. Pre-Brexit - if you were 80% Cash and Zero in the Banking sector you might consider spreading a little of that cash between the stronger Banks rather than gambling on total wipe-out imo.

Much of the problem has been caused by The Bank of England making statements that were damaging - Carney should go when a new PM is appointed.

I agree and yes i wish Carney would stop talking the economy down but then like Osbourne i guess he has to ,he wouldn't want it to be all ok now would he .

The entıre European Bankıng sector ıs a mess. Lloyds a decent bank pre crash turned ınto a basket case by takıng on HBOS. Bail out mark 2 comıng wıth zero ınterest rates. Just my gut feeling the past few years have just been a temporary ceasefıre.

Hope I wrong though.

Why lie when the economy is going downhill? Carney is right to be truthful.

hlyeo you are obviously gutted that we didn't remain in the EU ,however it's early days to say the economy is going downhill some countries are lining up to do trade deals with the UK ,i think it's about time Carney and all stopped talking Britain down ,these people don't like being wrong .Lets see what happens .

A little relief today in this sector and one that presented good trading opportunities.
Carney like many heading major organizations talk without full understanding of the changes being sought by the voters, who clearly are willing to accept a rough ride because of the manipulation and money making, power grabbing interests.

UK banks spared downgrades by S&P in mass outlook cull
Thu, 7th Jul 2016 15:04

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's carried out a mass-cull of British bank rating outlooks on Thursday in the wake of the country's vote to end its membership of the European Union, but stopped short of downgrading them despite its brutal cut of Britain's sovereign rating.

The country's big institutions including HSBC Barclays, Lloyds and well as the UK arms of banks like Santander all saw their rating outlooks cut to negative from stable, while RBS dropped to stable from positive.

The decision not to deliver full downgrades is likely to be of some relief. S&P stripped Britain of its last remaining top-notch credit rating last month following the Brexit vote, slashing it an unprecedented two grades from "AAA" to "AA".

"In our view, the "leave" result in the U.K.'s June 2016 referendum on EU membership ("Brexit") has increased the risks of adverse economic developments," S&P said in note following Thursday's banking outlook cuts.

"We also believe that the U.K. economy has now entered into a correction phase, driven by our revised expectation that imbalances will worsen as credit growth slows and real house prices contract."

52p +2.25p

Banks a moving higher today as the £ got stronger

54.82p +2.22 (4.22%)

This number makes Lloyds Banking Group plc a ‘buy’ for me - By Motley Fool | Mon, 11th July 2016 - 07:00

Since the EU referendum, Lloyds (LSE:LLOY) has slumped by 28%. Clearly, this is hugely disappointing for its investors and it almost doesn't need to be said that the bank's outlook is highly uncertain. A slowdown in the UK economy now seems likely and while a recession may not occur, the UK could be in for an extended period of difficulty as it slowly negotiates its exit from the EU.

This may lead investors to determine that Lloyds is a stock to avoid. After all, it's heavily exposed to the UK through its acquisition of HBOS during the credit crunch. If the UK housing market falls and consumer and business confidence comes under pressure (all of which seem likely), Lloyds could be nursing downgrades to its profit forecast.

However, these problems appear to be priced-in to Lloyds' current valuation. It trades on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 7. That's just over half the P/E ratio of the FTSE 100 and indicates that Lloyds offers a very wide margin of safety at the present time. This indicates that if the outlook for the bank was to deteriorate, the market already appears to be pricing-in such an eventuality and so Lloyds' shares may not be hit exceptionally hard. Similarly, if Lloyds' financial performance is better than expected then its shares could be substantially uprated.

Efficient bank

Clearly, Lloyds experienced a challenging period during the credit crunch and became loss making, with a government bailout being required. Since then, Lloyds' management team has performed well to make it among the most efficient of the UK-focused banks and it now has a strong balance sheet that has been substantially de-risked.

Furthermore, the wider UK banking system is in a much stronger position than it was prior to the credit crunch. This means that even if a recession does occur, it's unlikely that it will lead to a banking crisis. As such, Lloyds' low valuation could be seen as difficult to justify given its bright long-term future.

Income prospects

In addition, Lloyds is expected to become a very enticing income play. It's due to yield 7.3% in the current financial year. Certainly, there's scope for a cut in dividends if the UK's economic outlook deteriorates, but with shareholder payouts being covered almost twice by profit, Lloyds may not need to slash dividends in such a scenario. Rather, a modest cut may be sufficient.

With interest rates likely to fall from their historic low of 0.5%, Lloyds could become an enticing income play. Therefore, investor demand for higher-yielding shares could push its valuation higher.

Based on its risk/reward ratio, Lloyds makes sense as an investment at the present time. Its future won't be easy or straightforward, but with a wide margin of safety as indicated by its low P/E ratio, the rewards could be sizeable for long-term investors.

2016 Half-Year Results

'We have delivered a good financial performance in the first half with robust underlying profit, a doubling of statutory profit and strong capital generation, along with continued progress on our strategic initiatives.

Our success in recent years has been based on our focus on and commitment to doing the right thing for customers. Our strategy of becoming the best bank for customers and shareholders remains unchanged and we will continue to support the economy and help Britain prosper.

Following the EU referendum the outlook for the UK economy is uncertain and, while the precise impact is dependent upon a number of factors including EU negotiations and political and economic events, a deceleration of growth seems likely. The UK, however, enters this period of uncertainty from a position of strength, following continued private sector deleveraging, significantly improved mortgage affordability and low levels of unemployment. For Lloyds, our simple and low risk, UK focused, retail and commercial business model, together with the simplification and transformation of the business in recent years, position us well to continue doing the right thing for our customers and deliver strong returns for shareholders.'
António Horta-Osório, Group Chief Executive

Good financial performance with robust underlying profit, doubling of statutory profit and strong returns
· Underlying profit of £4.2 billion, down 5 per cent (2 per cent excluding TSB); underlying return on required equity of 14.0 per cent
· Total income 1 per cent lower at £8.9 billion
- Net interest income of £5.8 billion, up 1 per cent with improved margin of 2.74 per cent
- Other income 5 per cent lower at £3.1 billion, with improved performance in second quarter
· Operating costs 3 per cent lower at £4.0 billion driven by the acceleration of cost initiatives. Market-leading cost:income ratio improved to 47.8 per cent
· Asset quality remains strong with impairment charge of £245 million and asset quality ratio of 11 basis points
· Statutory profit before tax more than doubled to £2.5 billion
· Strong capital generation in second quarter of 0.5 percentage points after 0.3 percentage point impact of EU referendum
· Strong balance sheet with common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 13.0 per cent post dividend (13.5 per cent pre dividend); leverage ratio of 4.7 per cent
· Tangible net assets per share of 55.0 pence (2015: 52.3 pence) after payment of 2015 final dividend of 2.0 pence

Continued acceleration of strategy in line with customers' evolving needs
· Simplification targets enhanced with additional cost initiatives now targeted
- Closure of additional c.200 branches and further c.3,000 role reductions by the end of 2017
- Simplification run-rate savings target increased from £1.0 billion to £1.4 billion by the end of 2017
- In addition, rationalisation of non-branch property portfolio to be undertaken with c.30 per cent reduction by the end of 2018

2016 guidance for NIM and cost:income ratio reaffirmed with AQR and capital generation updated
· Net interest margin for the full year of around 2.70 per cent
· Full year cost:income ratio to be lower than 2015 ratio of 49.3 per cent
· Asset quality ratio for the full year now expected to be less than 20 basis points
· The impact on the Group of the referendum is dependent on economic and political outcomes which remain uncertain, however we now expect to generate around 160 basis points of CET1 capital in 2016 pre dividend, due to the impact of the EU referendum, in particular the effect of FX rates on RWAs
· Given the uncertainty, it is too early to determine the impact on our formal longer term guidance at this stage. However, while the business will remain highly capital generative, it is possible that this capital generation may be somewhat lower in future years than previously guided. We will formally update guidance when we have a clearer view of likely outcomes

Dividend



· Interim ordinary dividend of 0.85 pence per share, up 13 per cent, in line with our progressive and sustainable approach to ordinary dividends.


more...

Here's what Eamonn Holmes (on Sky News) scathingly has to say about Lloyds Bank's latest '3000 jobs to go and 200 branches to close' news today:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/694155/Eamonn-Holmes-Sky-News-Lloyds-bank-high-street-brexit-UK - "I don't pay to do the banking/supermarket/etc/etc job myself! We are fools to put up with this terrible service!"

Barclays Capital Equal weight 53.11 - 65.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Buy 53.11 63.00 60.00 Retains

"The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has this morning announced that it believes plans to impose a deadline for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims, as put forward in its November 2015 consultation document, should be taken forward subject to an extended consultation running to 11th October 2016. If implemented, the proposed deadline is expected to be June 2019 which is later than anticipated and may therefore require banks to set aside further provisions. For example, in its 2015 full year results, Lloyds^ (LLOY, Buy at 53p) set aside additional provisions to cover claims until mid-2018, so it is possible that an extra year’s worth of provisioning may now be required. Other banks are likely to have applied a similar assumption, in our view. Whether additional provisions are required and how material these may be is uncertain at this stage and we await further comment from the companies in this respect. However, we would not be surprised to see top-ups of a few hundred million pounds (and perhaps as high as £1bn) for each of the large UK banks, with Lloyds being the worst affected."

Cleverly crafted by the govnt to get more money from the banks to bolster spending by the public, regardless of whether the claims are genuine or not.

RBC Capital Markets today reaffirms its outperform investment rating on Lloyds Banking Group PLC ORD (LON:LLOY) and cut its price target to 70p (from 75p).

19 Sep Jefferies International Buy 57.00 68.00 67.00 Reiterates