Lloyds Banking Group, which received tax-payers money during the height of the banking crisis, says it now expects to make a profit this year - having posted heavy losses due to bad loans in 2009 which resulted in an operating loss of £6.3bn. This was blamed on bad loans made by Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), which Lloyds took over at the start of 2009.

However, Lloyds said trading performance in the first 10 weeks of 2010 had been "strong", and  that "...overall, based on the group's current economic and regulatory assumptions which remain unchanged since our recent 2009 preliminary results announcement, the group believes that it will be profitable on a combined businesses basis in 2010," it added.

In a statement ahead of a presentation by the CEO to the Morgan Stanley European Financials Conference, Lloyds Banking Group said in the first 10 weeks of 2010, the trading performance has been strong.

Eric Daniels, Group CEO - who said recently that his job "is to leave Lloyds in shape to last another 240 years, and that means you are very careful with reputation, with capital, with customers and with the franchise you build..." will present to investors, focusing on the opportunities for the Group to build sustainable earnings momentum.