The dividend will be paid despite the fact that earnings per share, after the exceptional and extraordinary items, were in the red.

Specified exceptional items are shown in the group p&l account.

The operating loss before exceptional items in 2010/11 was £38.3m.

Last year the bank earned 1.2 billion euros before taxes and exceptional items.

Profits before taxes, good will and exceptional items were up 19 percent for the year, to £10.04 billion, in line with analysts' expectations.

But their investment potential is generally rather poor and only the most exceptional items are likely to become collectable in the longer term.

Operating profit, ignoring exceptional items, fell from £180m to £39m.

Another area of uncertainty is the treatment of exceptional items.

These are in addition to the traditional historical cost and replacement cost results, both after exceptional items.

However, after exceptional items we reported losses on both an historical and a replacement cost basis in 1992.