Mis-selling Derivatives: Lloyds Boosts Banker Bonuses as 70% of Redress Pot Remains Unused

Lloyds Banking Group has not disbursed 70% of the money set aside to compensate victims of mis-sold derivatives, but the bank has ramped up its bonus pool in the meantime.

As of 31 December 2013, Lloyds had only used £368m (€448m, $611m) of the £530m in redress it is has set aside for compensating SMEs for the mis-selling of interest rate swap agreements (IRSA), according to the group's 2013 full year financial results.

While £130m was added to the redress fund, overall £218m relates to administrative costs and not compensation.

"No provision has been recognised in relation to claims from customers which are not covered by the agreement with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or incremental claims from customers within the scope of the review," said Lloyds.

"These will be monitored and future provisions will be recognised to the extent an obligation resulting in a probable outflow is identified."

Overall, the FCA's figures for January show that only £306.2m has been collectively paid out so far, by all the banks - a drop in the ocean compared with the £20bn set aside to cover the payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal.

PPI was originally designed to provide loan repayment cover, should the customer fall ill, lose their job or have an accident.

However, millions of customers complained after saying that they never wanted or needed the policy in the first place.

Lloyds' total PPI bill now stands at £9.8bn.

Meanwhile, Lloyds boosted its annual banker bonus pool by 10% to £395m after the financial more than doubled its underlying profit to £6.2bn.

The group's chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio will also receive a £1.7m bonus award in deferred shares for five years, which is also subject to conditions.

He is entitled to, under his contract, a maximum annual award of 225% of his £1.061m basic salary.