Britain's biggest mortgage lender - Lloyds Banking Group missed estimates as impairments rose in 2009 on the bank's takeover of HBOS Plc. Lloyds's posted a pretax loss of 6.3 billion pounds ($9.6 billion) from 6.7 billion pounds in 2008. Net profit stood at 2.8 billion pounds as a goodwill gain came to the rescue to help offset significant impairment charges.

Total bad loan losses were at 24 billion pounds, largely inherited from HBOS, the London-based lender said, as they declined 21 percent in the June-December period compared with the first six months. The company sees 'further significant reductions' in impairment charges in 2010.

HBOS - a banking and insurance company was acquired by Lloyds in January 2009. Following the acquisition, Lloyds was rescued by the government and the government now holds 41 per cent stake. Last year, Lloyds also raised 13.5 billion pounds in a rights issue. CEO Eric Daniels is forgoing his 2.3 million pound bonus for 2009, echoing the move of other British Bankers, after taking as much as 20 billion pounds of taxpayers' money.