Lloyds Banking Group posts £570m loss as mis-selling bill rises The loss is down on the £3.54bn Lloyds, which is 39pc owned by the taxpayer, lost in 2011. Stripping out the money set aside for the mis-selling claims, which consisted of £1.5bn for payment protection insurance and £310m for interest rate swaps, the lender said underlying pre-tax profit jumped from £638m to £2.6bn. The additional mis-selling costs will take the total provisions to cover PPI and the interest rate swap scandal to about £6.8bn. He said Lloyds was ahead with its revival plan and expected a further big drop in impairments this year and an increase in underlying profit. Sky News reported - citing sources - that the Government plans to sell its shares in the bailed-out bank if the price reaches 61p. Lloyds said the Treasury has told them that 61p is the average price at which the equity support provided to bank is recorded in the public finances. Shares in Lloyds, which have risen 57p over the past year, fell as much as 2.9pc to 52.9p when trading started on Friday. Net lending to small and medium sized business grew 4pc, against a market that fell 4pc. Mr Horta-Osório has promised to lend at least £5bn to its one million small business customers this year as part of a pledge to give them "all the support they need." In an open letter to the group of clients he promised to increase lending, reduce borrowing costs, and help start-ups. Lloyds is reducing its share of the mortgage market from 28pc to 25pc, but it increasing small business lending. The chief executive also said a sale of bank branches demanded by the European Commission as a condition for receiving state aid to the Co-op remains the preferred option.