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Empresas y finanzas

Lloyds Q1 profits up 21 percent as bad debt losses fall, margins rise


    LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest retail bank Lloyds Banking Group reported a 21 percent rise in underlying pretax profit for the first quarter, reflecting an improved margin and lower losses for bad debts.

    The state-backed lender said on Friday it made a pretax profit before one-off items of 2.2 billion pounds ($3.4 billion) for the three months to the end of March, at the top end of expectations, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.

    The bank said losses from bad debts fell 59 percent from a year ago to 177 million pounds and margins were better than expected, and it should exceed previous guidance on its net interest margin this year.

    (Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Carolyn Cohn)