Lloyds Banking Group was forced to pay another £750m charge for mis-selling payment protection insurance, which has taken the total compensation it paid for mis-selling to £8 billion and affectedits profitability.

The latest charge resulted in the banking group recording a loss of £440m in the three months till September. However, the bank has been able to perform well in the year as it recorded a profit of £1.7 billion over the first nine months, compared with a loss of £607 million in the same period of the previous year.

Lloyds' chief executive, Antonio Horta-Osorio has said that the management would welcome any pans of the government to include retail investors in the next sale of its shares held by the government treasury. It is believed that the government will sell the next batch of shares early next year. The retail investors were not invited to participate in the first, £3.2 billion sell-off during the previous one year.

Mr Horta-Osorio said, "Lloyds already has the largest retail shareholder base in the country, with more than 3 million individuals owning 12 per cent of the company. It is up to the Government on how and when the next sale takes place but we are absolutely sympathetic to extending the offer to retail investors."