Lloyds Bank, still 41% owned by the Government, reported profit figures of £2.2 billion today for 2010, compared to the £6.3 billion loss in 2009. Though the initial market reaction was to mark the Lloyds share price down by 4%, concerned over margins and potentially open ended Irish debt.

Bad debts were down to £13billionfrom £23billion, a substantial improvement on last year but included substantial exposure to the debt crisis in Ireland, where bad debts increased to £4.3 billion pounds from £2.9 billion the year before.

This was better than expected however, coming just after the RBS, still 82% owned by the government announced a £1.125 billion loss for the same period, against a loss of £3.6 billion the previous year

Both shares prices are somewhat anchored by the huge Government holdings that have to be released to the market at some stage, or bought by a friendly  investment agency with deep pockets.