Bond Market News

Lloyds Bank reported reported lower than expected profit in Q4 2021 with one-time charges hitting its earnings. Profit before tax rose 22% YoY to £968mn ($1.3bn) below analyst expectations of £1.4bn ($1.9bn). This was impacted by restructuring costs of £570mn ($764mn) majorly due to writing off software and £775mn ($1.04mn) in remediation costs largely regarding its HBOS Reading scandal. These led to a cost-to-income ratio of 68%, up from 59.9% in Q4 2020. On the positive side, banking net interest margin (NIM) was up 11bp YoY to 2.57%. Lloyds said that it plans to grow Embark, an investment platform it bought in early February, from about £37bn ($50bn) in AUM to £55bn ($74bn) over the next two years. The group’s CET1 ratio stood at 17.3%, up 110bp YoY.

Lloyd’s dollar bonds were stable with its 6.413% Perp at 133.5, yielding 3.33%.

Barclays reported its annual and quarterly earnings. Annual and Q4 2021 net profits were at £6.38bn ($8.6bn) and £1.12bn ($1.5bn), up 4x and 5x YoY respectively. During the year, Barclays released £700mn ($938mn) in credit impairment provisions, as compared to a £4.8bn ($6.4bn) charge in 2020. During the quarter, it released £31mn ($42mn) as compared to a £120mn ($161mn) charge in the prior year’s same quarter. Its investment banking fees and equities income were at a record during the year, up 34% and 20% to £3.7bn ($5bn) and £2.97bn ($4bn) respectively. Barclays’ NIM stood at 2.52% vs. 2.61% at end-2020. Barclays also announced an intent to make a £1bn ($1.34bn) share buyback making it a total of £1.5bn ($2bn) for the year. The group’s CET1 ratio was 15.1%, down from an all-time high of 15.4% in Q3 2021.

Barclays’ dollar bonds were steady with its 7.75% Perp at 104.44, yielding 4.74%.