UK's top banks back in the black for first time since 2010

The five major UK banks all recorded a profit in the first half of the year for the first time since 2010, a report has found.

The combined profits of the UK headquartered banks - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS and Standard Chartered - were £16.5bn for the six months to June. However, the banking industry emerging is very different to how it was before the crisis and bank business models are "unlikely ever to be the same again", the KPMG study said. Despite this better performance, the accountancy firm said real threats and uncertainties remain for the banking sector. While overall lending was up - including mortgage lending up by 0.8% or £5bn - and customer deposits grew by 6% or £135bn during ...