Chancellor George Osborne's target of raising £2.5 billion through the UK Bank Levy could be under pressure after Lloyds today became the third of the big banks to say it paid less than the City expected.
Lloyds share of the levy was £189 million, Barclays paid £325 million, Royal Bank of Scotland £300 million and HSBC has been suggesting it will have paid £380 million when it reports on Monday. That is a total of £1.2 billion or just under half Osborne's target.
He had already tweaked the rate of the levy up from 0.075% to 0.088% in his Autumn Statement because the banks had reduced the size of their balance sheets more quickly than expected.
Building societies and UK subsidiaries of foreign banks are also charged the levy but may well not make the total up to the Treasury's target.
