Here is the article (finally).

Lloyds fined for PPI payment delay by FSA

Lloyds Banking Group has been fined £4.3m for delaying compensation payments to customers over Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) mis-selling.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said that up to 140,000 customers did not receive their payments promptly.

Hundreds of thousands of people have received redress after they were mis-sold PPI that they did not want or need.

Lloyds is the first bank fined by the FSA specifically for delaying payments.

how clever of the FSA to fine the voters who own lloyds whether through the 40% publicly owned government shareholding or private shareholders.

Must just be a drop in the ocean as there's no drop in the SP!

2012 Results News Release

2012 Annual Remuneration

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

'AHEAD OF OUR PLAN TO TRANSFORM THE GROUP, DESPITE THE CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT'
'The substantial progress we made in 2012 means that we are now ahead of our plan to transform the Group, and this was reflected in our stronger underlying financial performance in the year. Since setting out our strategy in June 2011, we have significantly strengthened the balance sheet, and substantially improved efficiency and focus, while continuing to work through legacy issues. We are investing in our simple, lower-risk, customer-focused UK retail and commercial banking model, and in value-for-money products and better capabilities to continue to support UK households, businesses and communities. We are creating a business of which customers and colleagues can be proud, and which I am confident will help Britain prosper, and deliver strong, stable returns to shareholders.'
António Horta-Osório,
Group Chief Executive

Significantly improved Group performance; continue to work through legacy issues
· Substantial increase in Group underlying profit from £638 million to £2,607 million
· Full year Group net interest margin of 1.93 per cent, in line with guidance
· Costs further reduced by 5 per cent to £10.1 billion, in line with strategic review target two years ahead of plan; Simplification run-rate savings increased to £847 million
· Credit quality continues to improve; 42 per cent impairment reduction to £5.7 billion, significantly ahead of original guidance; impairment charge as a percentage of average advances improved to 1.02 per cent (2011: 1.62 per cent)
· Statutory loss of £570 million primarily due to PPI provisions of £3,575 million (including £1,500 million in the fourth quarter of 2012), and including £3,207 million of gains from sales of government securities

Confident in capital position; balance sheet further de-risked; funding position transformed
· Strong underlying capital generation with core tier 1 capital ratio increased to 12.0 per cent; on a pro forma fully loaded CRD IV basis the ratio is estimated at 8.1 per cent, including 0.3 per cent from expected CRD IV resolutions
· Continued capital-accretive non-core asset reduction of £42.3 billion, benefiting capital ratios, and exceeding initial 2012 guidance by £17 billion. Non-core portfolio now less than £100 billion, at £98.4 billion
· Deposit growth of 4 per cent; core loan to deposit ratio of 101 per cent, in line with long-term target of 100 per cent; Group loan to deposit ratio of 121 per cent, achieving target two years in advance
· Total wholesale funding reduced by £81.6 billion to £169.6 billion; maturity profile further improved with less than 30 per cent (2011: 45 per cent) of total wholesale funding with a maturity of less than one year

Core business increasingly well positioned for growth and delivering strong returns above cost of equity
· Core return on risk-weighted assets increased from 2.46 per cent to 2.56 per cent
· Underlying profit broadly stable at £6,154 million (2011: £6,196 million)
· Core net interest margin of 2.32 per cent; stable throughout 2012
· 5 per cent reduction in core costs to £9,212 million; 34 per cent reduction in core impairments to £1,919 million

Further improving products and services to support customers and the UK economic recovery
· UK's largest lender to first-time buyers, helping over 55,000 customers, and exceeding £5 billion lending target for 2012
· SME net lending growth of 4 per cent, against a shrinking market; exceeded 2012 SME net lending commitment of £13 billion and three year target of assisting 300,000 new start-ups by the end of 2012
· First participant in Funding for Lending Scheme, further enabling us to support the UK economy; £11 billion committed
· Increased Net Promoter Score in all three brands and a further reduction in FSA reportable banking complaints (excluding PPI) to 1.1 per 1,000, more than halving complaints in two years

Further progress expected in 2013 and beyond; confident in meeting medium term guidance
· Expect Group net interest margin of around 1.98 per cent for full year 2013
· Targeting further reduction in total costs to around £9.8 billion in 2013
· Expect further improvement in portfolio quality, and a substantial reduction in the 2013 impairment charge, with a consequential increase in underlying profit before tax
· Targeting core loan growth in the second half of 2013
· Expect a further reduction of non-core assets of at least £20 billion in 2013; on track to achieve target of a non-core asset portfolio of £70 billion or less by the end of 2014, with more than 50 per cent in non-core retail assets

why the crash then!

3.5% down is a crash??? Move the decimal point to the right & I would agree with you. Maybe best to wait for broker reports later today as often it's what was expected rather than what has happened which moves the price on the day.

Investec Sell 52.51 54.47 46.00 46.00 Reiterates

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Sell 52.51 54.47 48.00 48.00 Reiterates

Oriel Securities Buy 52.51 54.47 49.00 49.00 Reiterates

Ian Gordon of Investec:
"We’re all in this together! (David Cameron, 2010). FY12 Loss per share was 2.0p vs Investec 2.5p and consensus 1.3p - so better than us, but c.50% worse than consensus. The Attributable Loss of £1.4bn takes tNAV down to just 54.9p, and IAS19R may take off another c.3p in Q1 2013e. Worse than expected Q4 mis-selling top-up of £1.8bn is balanced by a similar £1.8bn gilt sale. FY12 NIM of 1.93% is “in line” but 2013 NIM guidance of 198bp may underwhelm - adversely impacted by the aforementioned gilt sales. Sell.

The reduction in tNAV to 54.9p does NOT reflect the impact of IAS19R which would (as at 31 Dec 2012), shave off a further c.3p when a (volatile) c.£2.1bn deduction to shareholders’ equity is applied in Q1 2013e. (Note 24, page 164 refers). On 1.0x tNAV with RoE unlikely to cover CoE before 2016e, we believe the share price has got ahead of itself – on 1.0x 2012/2013e tNAVs the stock is expensive in both relative and absolute terms and we expect a correction.

Lloyds’ “Underlying Profit” of £2.6bn is a shade ahead of consensus (£2.4bn). Despite a very small miss on revenues, the group impairment charge fell to £5.7bn in FY12 – largely reflecting a step-down in incremental loss severity in Ireland. The charge was £0.2bn better than consensus. Costs are “in line”.

We note fresh media speculation that the UK Government, a 39% shareholder, may commence its share disposal at 61p. This is a new “contrived” break-even number for UK Government accounting which conveniently ignores its average in-price of 73.6p. All very interesting, but we hardly see the potential market overhang as positive for upside. Our current approach to valuation doesn’t “punish” Lloyds for being state-owned!

We retain our Sell rec and RoE-g/CoE-g derived 46p target price."

Sandy Chen of Cenkos:
"Lloyds (LLOY LN, £38bn mkt cap, 54p, Sell) – Management’s £2.6bn underlying profit doesn’t include £5.5bn of charges from PPI, restructuring and other regulatory fines. On the statutory accounts, shareholders’ equity fell 4% yoy to £44.7bn, Core Tier 1 capital fell 4.2% to £44.0bn, and tangible book value per share fell 3.7% to 54.9p. Keep in mind that with the elimination of pension corridor accounting as at 1 Jan 13, shareholders’ equity would be reduced by circa £2.1bn (i.e. another 5%); we think that the Core Tier 1 ratio would be cut by circa 40bp as a result.

Customer loans fell 8.6% to £517bn, and customer deposits rose 3.1% to £427bn. Whilst this will support LLOY’s much stronger liquidity position as well as keeping net interest margins healthy, we struggle to see how LLOY will be able to grow top-line income with a shrinking balance sheet.

We were wrong in our expectation of higher-than-guided impairment charges; these came in as guided, with lower impaired loans in the commercial banking book being a key driver.

Stepping back, we continue to expect PPI, SME swap mis-selling, and LIBOR-related charges will eat up earnings – note that there have been no LIBOR-related provisions yet. We’ll look closely into the macro assumptions behind the lower impairment guidance as well. So whilst the market may regard these figures as in-line, we’d remain sceptical in terms of bottom-line returns."

how does the 39% minority goverment shareholding make LLOY "state-owned"?

Hmmm - I fell like quoting Rudyard Kipling!

Canaccord Genuity has retained its 'hold' rating and 35p target price for UK banking group Lloyds after a mixed set of full-year results on Friday morning.

As for the stock's valuation, Canaccord said that unless the regulator allows an earlier resumption of ordinary dividend - something that is likely "some way off" - "we do not see much valuation support/upside at current share price levels".

Societe Generale Buy 51.98 53.25 52.00 61.00 Reiterates

Berenberg Sell 51.98 53.25 24.00 24.00 Reiterates

JP Morgan Cazenove Neutral 51.98 53.25 55.00 - Retains

Exane BNP Paribas Outperform 51.98 53.25 63.00 60.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Buy 51.98 53.25 66.00 64.00 Retains

UBS Buy 51.98 53.25 60.00 60.00 Retains

Morgan Stanley Equal weight 51.98 53.25 - 50.00 Retains

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Buy 49.12 50.07 65.00 70.00 Retains

Espirito Santo Execution Noble Sell 49.12 50.07 48.00 48.00 Reiterates

Societe Generale Buy 49.12 50.07 61.00 61.00 Reiterates

RNS LLOY placing 102m shares of St James's Place

Lloyds Banking Group to sell 20pc stake in St James's Place

The sale will bolster Lloyds’ capital levels just weeks before regulators are due to publish a report on the health of Britain’s largest banks, which is expected to show capital shortfalls on the balance sheets of some lenders.

Lloyds said it would retain a 37pc holding in St James’s Place, but that following the sale it would no longer consolidate the business’s financial results into its own accounts.

Selling the 102m shares is expected to bring in about £350m to £400m for Lloyds depending on the eventual sale price. Based on these proceeds and the change in accounting for the remaining stake, the bank is expected to recognise a gain of about £600m, increasing its core capital by 0.2pc, taking its core Tier 1 ratio to 12.2pc.

Investec has upgraded its recommendation for UK banking group Lloyds from 'sell' to 'hold' and lifted its target price for the shares from 46p to 50p.

The broker said that Lloyds' share price has delivered a "useful" 10% correction over the past two weeks after the company's full-year results. "Alongside modest forecast revisions, this prompts an upgrade to 'hold' (from 'sell'). We still advise relative caution on Lloyds, but we now recommend the closure of naked shorts," said analyst Ian Gordon.

In terms of the wider view held by the City, Broker Forecasts consensus data shows that only 23 per cent of broker continue to recommend the stock as a sell versus 46 per cent who have a buy rating in place.

"Lloyds has placed part of its stake in wealth management firm St James's Place at 510p a share, bolstering its capital position and making a profit on the sale of £400m"

...but are Lloyds going to be allowed to keep all this profit? maybe the EU will declare it too much and decree Lloyds must pay some back!

Looking good now after the retracement. Share price bouncing from lower Bollinger Band
I add some at 50.52p earlier

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Goldman Sachs Neutral 49.42 48.63 57.00 60.00 Retains