Big banks to unveil £24bn profits

The four - HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Standard Chartered - are on course to announce combined profits of £24.2bn, up more than 10%on the £21.5bn they reported last year, writes the Telegraph. The growth in profits, based on estimates from respected City investment bank Nomura, will demonstrate the strength of the financial services sector - one of the linchpins of the British economy. Coming just a week after government statistics showed consumer confidence falling to a 19-year-low and after Britain's productivity decreased by 0.5% in the last three months of 2010, the first fall sinc...