Hefty coronavirus provision hammers profits at Lloyds Bank

LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group's pretax profit was all but wiped out in the first quarter, after it joined the list of lenders hobbled by provisions against expected bad loans due to the coronavirus pandemic.Britain's biggest domestic bank on Thursday reported pre-tax profits of 74 million pounds, down from 1.6 billion pounds the previous year, hit by a 1.4 billion pounds loan impairments charge.The figure was sharply below the 863 million pounds average of analysts' forecasts compiled..