Shares in the bank, which is 41% owned by the taxpayer, rose this morning as it told the stock market it has incurred fewer bad debts than feared so far this year

Lloyds Banking Group cheered its long-suffering shareholders this morning by predicting a return to profit this year, after incurring fewer bad debts than feared in recent weeks.

The bank, which is 41% owned by the taxpayer following its takeover of HBOS two years ago, told the City that trading had been "strong" in the first 10 weeks of the year. It is keeping a tight lid on costs, which are lower than in the same period in 2009. The bank's net interest margin is still in line with recent guidance and this has supported "a good level of income growth".

"Impairment provisions are currently trending at lower levels than anticipated and as a result the group now expects to deliver a better impairment performance than previously guided, in both the retail and corporate businesses, in 2010," Lloyds said in an unscheduled trading statement.

"Overall ... the group believes that it will be profitable on a combined businesses basis in 2010."

The upbeat statement boosted shares in Britain's banks, and sent Lloyds shares up 8% to 60p in early trading. Royal Bank of Scotland gained nearly 6% to 44.45p, and Barclays rose almost 2% to 359.6p.

"We did this impromptu update because there is a material improvement in the performance," said a Lloyds spokesman. "We felt in the ten weeks of trading since Christmas the trends are better than we expected. These are the first signs of an encouraging performance in the year ahead."

But he added that the improvement is "not really a reflection of general market conditions" but specific to Lloyds' customers.

A big increase in bad debts drove Lloyds to a £6.3bn loss last year. Impairments ballooned to £24bn from £14.9bn largely because the loans that HBOS granted to commercial property ventures in the run-up to the financial crisis went sour. Eric Daniels, the Lloyds chief executive, said three weeks ago that bad debts had peaked.

Today's comments will calm fears about UK banks after Standard & Poor's warned yesterday that lenders remain vulnerable to a deterioration in loan quality and money markets. The rating agency said there is "limited scope" for banks to increase profits over the next two years. "Into 2010, we consider that UK banks will remain pressured by elevated loan impairments. Our expectation of a slow economic recovery may prolong the period in which losses are elevated relative to historic averages," S&P said in a report.

Analysts at Redburn Partners noted that the commercial property market ended 2009 on a high with an 8% rise in capital values in the fourth quarter, underpinned by the highest level of investment activity since autumn 2007. "This has materially positive ramifications for Lloyds' most troubled loan book."

Lloyds will update on trading again on 27 April. Today's comments are part of a presentation which Daniels will give to investors at the Morgan Stanley European financials conference on Wednesday.

"In general banks have been very bullish in client meetings post their results. Given that interest rates are at a 350-year low, it is not surprising that credit quality is improving," said Bruce Packard at Seymour Pierce. "But UK households are around three times more indebted than during the early 1990s recession, and consensus forecasts for growth look far too optimistic compared to how the banks grew income coming out of the last recession."

Today's news comes as a former Lloyds employee accused the bank of artificially inflating its profits by almost £1bn through the use of aggressive tax-avoidance schemes and exotic "Lehman-style" offshore deals.

• Lloyds Banking Group
• Banking
• Financial crisis

Julia Kolleweguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Six staff dismissed for not meeting standards at council which was criticised over death from starvation of Khyra Ishaq

Six social workers at Birmingham city council criticised over the death from starvation of seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq have been sacked, it emerged today.

The staff were dismissed over the past year for not doing their jobs properly at the council, which is taking part in a serious case review of the death.

The dismissals are not thought to be directly linked to Khyra's case, but they follow other child deaths in recent years.

Khyra died in May 2008 from starvation, and her mother and stepfather were jailed last week for her manslaughter.

Colin Tucker, the director of children's social care at the council, said the sacked staff showed "no sign whatsoever" of meeting expected standards.

In an interview with the BBC, he said: "We are not appointing some staff, as well as that we have dismissed six staff in the last year.

"There is a clear indication we are serious about our standards. They did not adhere to standards and expectations that we laid down. They showed no sign whatsoever that they were keen to do so, so we dismissed them."

Khyra died when her body succumbed to an infection after months of starvation at her home in Handsworth, Birmingham.

She was removed from school in December 2007 and social workers made several attempts to visit her home.

Khyra's mother, Angela Gordon, was jailed for 15 years over her death, while her former partner Junaid Abuhamza was jailed indefinitely, with a minimum term of seven-and-a-half years.

During the trial the judge, Mrs Justice King, said that "in all probability" Khyra would not have died had there been "an adequate initial assessment and proper adherence by the educational welfare services to its guidance".

Tucker was brought in last year after Ofsted inspectors branded aspects of the council's children's department as "inadequate".

He said there were about 120 vacant posts were filled with agency staff but he wanted to cut the number of agency staff to between 40 and 50.

• Social care
• Children
• Local government

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Oo are yer?

Europe's privacy watchdogs have outlined exactly what the meanings are of the two terms on which the whole EU Data Protection Directive hangs. It said that organisations need more guidance now because of the complexity of modern business....

The power of collaboration within unified communications

Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Palm Sold Only 408,000 Smartphones Last Quarter (PALM)  —  Palm's third quarter was terrible, as anticipated.  The company slashed its guidance a few weeks ago, and today confirmed that its Pre and Pixi smartphones are simply not selling very well.  —  Specifically, Palm's smartphone sellthrough …

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Palm's third quarter was terrible, as anticipated. The company slashed its guidance a few weeks ago, and today confirmed that its Pre and Pixi smartphones are simply not selling very well.

Read the rest of this story »

See Also:

• Apple's HTC Patent Suit Could Be Another Reason For Someone To Buy Palm
• Palm's New Gaming Platform Won't Save Palm
• Palm CEO Explains To Employees Why The Company Is Toast

Europe's privacy watchdogs have outlined exactly what the meanings are of the two terms on which the whole EU Data Protection Directive hangs. It said that organisations need more guidance now because of the complexity of modern business.

It’s easy for any library to have a social media presence these days.  Translating that into success with serving a teen population?  Well, that’s another thing…

Be Yourself

The discussion of personal and professional profiles always comes up.  I didn’t want to have two profiles (done it before, hated it) so I had to make a decision: add teens to my own accounts or hide myself far, far away.  I went with what some may consider to be the unpopular route.  I added them to my own accounts.  I feel like it has made a world of difference.

I am happy to share the real Justin with the teens that I serve.  I have nothing bad to hide and all good to share.  Letting them in on my “personal” life has actually allowed me to establish a deeper connection with them.  For example, when one teen found that him and I shared an interest in The Mars Volta, he came running in the library one day in disbelief.  He was excited that I was into the same music as him.  He now comes in a few times each week and we spend a good fifteen minutes or so talking about music.

This is just one of countless examples of how opening up my personal social networking accounts to teens has made it easier for me to connect with them and provide them with quality service.  In the end, it makes you more of a real person to them.  They become your friend and they trust you.  The upside to this?  They’re using the library…and they love it.

Stay Active

There’s nothing that looks sadder than an abandoned profile.  If you’re going to have a public account, make sure you update it with the most relevant information.  Don’t just create the profile and let it fester and rot away.  An up to date profile will show your public that you care about connecting with them.  One of the golden rules I try to always stick to is replying to comments or posts.  Even if it is a simple hello or a comment on a link, say something back!  Conversation and interaction is one of the reasons why we’re all using social media.

Educate Them

Myspace is dead.  It lost its appeal when showing off how (badly) one could customize their page with videos, gifs, and pictures won out over connecting and sharing with others.  We can learn something from this.

Media 21 is a project created by Buffy Hamilton, a school librarian at Creekview High School in Canton, GA.  The goal of the Media 21 Project is to “expand teens’ information literacy skills by introducing them tools for constructing a personal learning network and to posit research as a real world activity for learning, not an isolated unit of study.”

The idea behind Media 21 blows my mind.  Taking a moment or two each day to educate the teens using my library about social media allows me to better serve them as a librarian.  They understand that social media is a real and credible way to interact, share and create.  It helps me be the best librarian I can be for them.  I know what they want, and they know I’m always here to listen.

Buffy further adds: “I wanted to them to learn how to use social media tools for constructing and sharing knowledge as well as to start thinking about ways social media can be an authoritative source of knowledge”

Right on, sister.

You can read more about the Media 21 project here

Many thanks to School Librarian extraordinaire Buffy Hamilton for her quotes and guidance.

Give Stuff Away

I love what they’re doing over at the Darien Library with FourSquare.  As a matter a fact, it got me thinking.  With the tips  feature, we’re able to create our own little mini scavenger hunts for teens.  I learned just how excited teens get whyen it comes to scavenger hunts when I hosted an all night teen lock in at my library last year.  The scavenger hunt was one of the biggest events of the night.  By offering daily scavenger hunts with rewards, teens will have more reason to come into the library, check in, and complete the daily tip.  You’ve got them inside the library and they’re actively participating in a library program.  Win!

(On a related note, I highly suggest checking out this excellent post by David Lee King.  “Personal Accounts, Work Accounts – What To Do?”)