Lloyds Banking Group H1 net profit down 92 pct

Part-nationalized Lloyds Banking Group says its first-half net profit fell sharply even though its bad loans were almost halved from a year ago.

Lloyds, formed from the merger of Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland, said Wednesday that net profit was 596 million pounds ($950 million), down from 7.1 billion pounds a year earlier.

Provisions for bad loans and other losses dropped from 13.4 billion pounds last year to 6.55 billion pounds.

Before taxes, the bank made a profit of 1.6 billion compared to a loss of 4 billion pounds a year ago and 6.3 billion pounds in the second half of 2009.

The government holds a 41 percent stake in the group which was bailed out during the credit crisis.