by Calculated Risk on 2/13/2009 11:13:00 AM

From The Times: Lloyds dives on HBOS £10bn black hole

Lloyds Banking Group shares plunged 40 per cent this afternoon after it revealed a £10 billion black hole at HBOS, the struggling bank that it rescued last year.

Lloyds Banking Group ... [made] a surprise announcement ... that trading at HBOS had worsened in December, driving its losses up by a further £1.6 billion to £10 billion.
...
"It is no secret that the UK economy continued to decline in December, and this was reflected in today's numbers.” [Lloyds said in a statement]
...
Lloyds Banking Group said that the huge losses at HBOS owe to a £4 billion "impact of market dislocation" and about £7 billion of impairments in the HBOS corporate division.

A billion pounds here, a billion pounds there ...