Lloyds Banking Group posted a £3.5bn loss in 2011, its full year results show today.

This figure was down from a £281m profit in 2010 but included a £3.2bn provision for redress for customers affected by the mis-selling of payment protection insurance.

Excluding this and other one-off costs, the Group would have made a profit of £2.7bn, a year-on-year increase of 21 per cent.

Total operating expenses for the firm, which is 41 per cent owned by the taxpayer, rose 22 per cent to £16.2bn, again due to the PPI provision.

Income fell by 10 per cent to £21m reflecting subdued lending demand.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, which is owned by the Group, saw assets under management fall by 4.3 per cent to £139bn.

Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, who took two months off last year due to a sleep disorder, said: “In 2011, we established our longer term strategy for the group, acted quickly and decisively to mitigate the effects of a challenging environment and put in place the right foundations to deliver on our objectives over the next three to five years, while continuing to support the UK economy.”

The group said it was confident that its medium-term targets were “achievable over time” for the firm but that income related targets would be delayed due to weak economic outlook.