Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland set to unveil £8.8bn profits in the week ahead

Three of Britain’s biggest banks are expected to book almost £9billion in profits this week despite revenues being hit by a mortgage price war.

Lloyds, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland are tipped to reveal that combined profits soared 34 per cent to £8.8billion for the first half of the year, according to the estimates of analysts.

Profits at Barclays will rise significantly because it was hit by a £1.4billion settlement with the US Department of Justice last year for mis-selling financial products during the financial crisis.

And profits at RBS will be lifted by the sale of a stake in Saudi Arabia’s Alawwal Bank.

Pressure on banks is easing after years of spending tens of billions of pounds to settle claims for payment protection insurance, or PPI.

But total revenues for the trio of banks are tipped to fall 2 per cent to £26billion. Bank bosses are expected to blame low interest rates and competition in mortgages for the decline.

A string of smaller lenders – including Tesco Bank – have exited the mortgage market because it has become so competitive.

Paul Lynam, chief executive of Secure Trust Bank, said: ‘Some large banks are very aggressively chasing market share on mortgages, so that’s compressing margins.

‘If all you do is mortgages then you don’t have the same options as a more diversified business and the consequence of that is you have to live with lower profits.’