Britain's Lloyds bank logs record loss for HBOS unit

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LONDON, Feb 28 (AFP): Britain's partly-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group said yesterday its HBOS unit made a record pre-tax loss of 10.8 billion pounds (12.1 billion euros, 15.4 billion dollars) in 2008.

The worst results in HBOS's history came after it was slammed by the global credit crunch, soaring bad debts, tumbling property prices and a recession in Britain. It had posted pre-tax profits of 5.5 billion pounds in 2007.

In another day of grim news for the banking sector, LBG said its Lloyds TSB arm-which merged with HBOS earlier this year-saw net profits collapse 75 per cent to 819 million pounds in 2008 from 3.3 billion pounds in 2007.

LBG also forecast that the entire group would make a loss this year and added that it was still locked in talks with the British government about joining its scheme to ring-fence toxic assets.

HBOS was hit last year by 9.9 billion pounds' worth of losses on bad consumer loans which were written off.

The latest dire financial news comes a day after Royal Bank of Scotland unveiled a record British corporate loss of 24.1 billion pounds, coupled with an announcement it will need a new state bailout worth up to 25.5 billion in fresh funds.