Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has posted a statutory loss before tax of £3.47 billion for the first quarter of 2011.

This compares to a profit of £721 million for the same period in 2010.

However, this loss is primarily due to a £3.2 billion Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) provision, for potential costs of customer contact and/or redress, following High Court judgment and discussions with the FSA.

In the first quarter of 2011 the group provided £5.8 billion of gross mortgage lending (including remortgages) to UK homeowners and £10.3 billion of “committed”” gross lending to UK businesses. Of committed gross lending to UK businesses