The PPI racket casts a light on how much needs to be done to clean up the banks

Company results can tell you about much more than the fortunes of an individual business; they sometimes reveal the worrying state of an entire industry. So it is with yesterday's quarterly figures from Lloyds. Sure, the company-specific stuff gets its full and ugly reflection. Taxpayers and other interested observers can see for themselves that the state-owned bank remains in fragile condition, racking up losses of £3.47bn in the first three months of this year. And the group continues to pay a heavy price for earlier misadventures in the Irish property market. Lloyds shares are now bouncing around 55p, about 25% below the price the government paid for its stake, which raises serious questions about when and how taxpayers will get their money back.

But yesterday's results tell us about more than one messed-up balance sheet; they help paint a picture of a rotten industry practice. Because the bank's single biggest source of red ink is due to losses in a business that most of its.....Read more HERE