By Elena Vardon


Lloyds Banking maintained its full-year guidance as it reported a slightly better-than-expected net interest margin for the first quarter of the year.

The U.K. lender posted a net interest margin--the difference between what banks earn on loans and pay out on deposits--of 2.95% for the three months ended March 31. This beat expectations of a 2.93% margin, taken from a company-compiled consensus, and compares with the 2.98% margin it reported for the fourth quarter of last year.

The company confirmed that it expects the margin, which reflects how the Bank of England's expected interest-rate cuts affect the income it earns on its loans, to be more than 2.90% for the year, compared with a current consensus estimate of 2.93%. At its full-year results in February, Lloyds said it expected a gentle decline in the first half of the year followed by a gentle incline.

For the quarter, the bank posted net income of 4.24 billion pounds ($5.28 billion) driven by interest income, against expectations of GBP4.32 billion and GBP4.23 billion for the same period the previous year.

Pretax profit was GBP1.63 billion compared with GBP2.26 billion, below consensus expectations of GBP1.66 billion.


Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-24-24 0234ET