Bank on recovery road

Lloyds Banking Group posted its highest annual profits for a decade.

The performance marked a further stage in its recovery from mis-selling scandals and its mammoth Government bailout in the financial crisis.

The taxpayer-backed lender said bottom-line profits more than doubled to £4.24 billion last year, largely due to lower costs of compensation for payment protection insurance.

The Government now holds less than 5% of the bank it bailed out for £20.5bn.