Lloyds Banking Group set aside £750m in 2018 for payment protection insurance (PPI) claims.

Banks are having to repay customers who did not want, need or understand the loan insurance. The latest figure takes the bank's total provision pot to £19.4bn, as reported by the BBC.

Despite the PPI claims, the bank, which has a headquarters in Barnwood, saw profits rise 24 per cent to £4.4bn.

Lloyds paid out £1.86bn to claimants in 2018. Customers have until 29th August to make a claim.

Lloyds sold 16 million PPI policies since 2000 and has settled or set aside funds for 53 per cent of them. So far, £31.9bn has been paid out in compensation by UK lenders, with banks setting aside another £10bn for future claims.

Once the deadline has been reached, banks will again be seeing more money getting back to shareholders.

Lloyds' net interest margin, the difference between what a bank pays depositors and charges borrowers and is an indicator of a bank's profitability, rose from 2.86 per cent to 2.93 per cent.

Through dividend payments and buying its own shares back from investors, the bank will pay out £4bn this year, it said.

The bank has cut thousands of jobs in recent years, as it returned to private ownership, following the government owning a 43 per cent stake during the financial crisis. It has also closed branches, including in many of the county's market towns, and reduced the size of branches.