Lloyds Banking Group reported a rise in pretax profit for the fourth quarter of 2021 that fell short of market views as it booked high fraud-related costs, and said it intends to launch a share buyback program of up to £2bn.

Britain's largest high-street bank posted a pretax profit for the period of £968m compared with £792m for the same period a year earlier and with an expectation of £1.28bn, according to its compiled consensus.