UK bank Lloyds on high alert over potential Russian cyberattacks

The bank said it would buy back £2bn of its own shares and pay a final dividend of 1.33 pence per share.

Britain's biggest domestic lender Lloyds has said it is on "heightened alert" for cyberattacks from Russia as the crisis in Ukraine has worsened.

"We've been on heightened alert... internally around our cyber risk controls and we've been focused on this now for quite a while," Lloyds CEO Charlie Nunn said after the bank's full-year results.

Preparation for potential cyberattacks was discussed in a meeting between the British government and banking industry leaders about Russia on Wednesday, Mr Nunn added. Lloyds has been on heightened alert for the "last couple of months", he said.

Banks globally have been preparing for tougher sanctions from Western governments against Russia. As a primarily UK-focused bank, Lloyds is not very exposed directly to Russia but has nonetheless been checking its controls and preparing for stricter sanctions, Mr Nunn said.

"This is obviously top of our minds at the moment. We have been, like other financial service organisations, talking to the government in the last few weeks," Mr Nunn said. Lloyds posted a jump in annual profits but was dented by further costs for past misdeeds, as the lender laid out a fresh strategy under its new CEO.

Lloyds reported a pre-tax profit of £6.9bn (€8.3bn), below the £7.2bn average analyst forecast compiled by the bank. Lloyds made a £1.2bn profit a year earlier.

The bank said it would buy back £2bn of its own shares and pay a final dividend of 1.33 pence per share. The profit miss was largely due to huge remediation charges of £1.3bn, including an additional £600m for payouts and costs related to historic fraud at its HBOS Reading branch.

- Reuters