By Lars Mucklejohn Lloyds Banking Group has reported an uptick in annual profits on the back of higher interest rates while making a £450m provision for potential compensation payouts from an FCA motor finance probe. The group also announced it was planning a £2bn share buyback, which together with a 1.84p per share final dividend would see £3.8bn returned to shareholders. Britain’s largest domestic banking group – which owns Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows – posted a pretax profit of £7.5bn for 2023, up 57 per cent from £4.8bn in 2022 and an all-time high for the le…
