Lloyds Banking Group has reported a loss of £4 billion in the first-half of the year, as bad debts from the HBOS business it bought earlier this year continue to rise

This compares to a profit of £2.8 billion for the same period last year

It reported £18 billion of gross mortgage lending, which means a 27% share of gross lending and 37% of net new lending.

Lloyds said impairments were likely to have peaked in the first half of 2009 and expects its performance to improve from the second half of the year.