London, March 18, 2026, 14:50 GMT
Lloyds Banking Group shares were little changed at 96.19 pence by 1449 GMT on Wednesday, lagging Barclays and NatWest, as investors weighed fresh parliamentary scrutiny of the bank’s customer-data glitch against a firmer tone in UK financial stocks. Barclays was up 0.94% and NatWest 0.65% at the same time. 1
The muted move mattered because banks were one of London’s stronger pockets earlier in the session, with the sector up 1.9% by 1044 GMT as oil prices eased and traders waited for the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England. Lloyds was not really joining in. 2
On Tuesday, parliament’s Treasury Committee asked Chief Executive Charlie Nunn to explain the March 12 app failure, what information was exposed and how affected customers might be compensated. Lloyds said no customer action was needed and that account security had not been compromised, but it has not disclosed how many people were affected. 3
The timing is awkward. The same committee said last year that nine major UK banks and building societies suffered at least 803 hours of unplanned outages between January 2023 and February 2025, a record that has put digital resilience near the top of the agenda as lenders push more customers online. 3
Management, though, is still making the case for the stock. Speaking at Morgan Stanley’s European Financials Conference on Tuesday, Nunn said Lloyds saw “significant value in the stock” and signalled that buybacks remained an important tool for returning spare capital. 4
Nunn also said the structural hedge, a book of longer-dated fixed-rate assets and swaps used to smooth earnings as rates move, should add 1.5 billion pounds of net revenue this year and more than 1 billion next year. He reiterated guidance for return on tangible equity above 16% in 2026, a banking measure of profit generated on shareholder capital.
Morgan Stanley’s Alvaro Serrano, moderating the session, said his estimates pointed to “16% to 18%” return on tangible equity over the medium term. Lloyds is due to set out the next phase of its strategy in July. 4
That longer-term case has been in the market since January, when Lloyds reported 2025 pretax profit of 6.7 billion pounds, up 12%, lifted its 2026 profitability target and announced a 1.75 billion pound buyback. Reuters said at the time that Britain’s biggest mortgage lender would move to half-yearly excess-capital distributions. 5
But there is a clear downside path. Nunn said mortgage competition remained stiff, and Morningstar economist Grant Slade said fears of a Bank of England hike were “overdone” even as he expected rates to stay at 3.75% on Thursday; tighter pricing or wider fallout from the glitch could still keep Lloyds lagging even in a better bank tape.
For now, the market still looks cautious. By mid-afternoon, Lloyds had traded between 96.14 pence and 98.34 pence on the day, against a 52-week range of 60.78 pence to 114.60 pence, leaving the shares well below their year high despite the buyback story and ahead of July guidance. 1
