Barclays PLC (BCS) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. So thank you. We have today the Barclays full year 2025 results, our progress, and our target update. Today we will announce outline targets for the next three years to deliver an even better run, a more strongly performing and a higher returning Barclays.

This builds on the improvements which we have delivered in the last two years of our plan and which we shared with you in February of 2024. But first, let us take stock of the progress so far, starting with our 2025 results. There will be an opportunity for those in the room to ask questions at the very end of our presentation.

So, turning now to slide 4. Barclays achieved all financial targets and guidance in 2025. We generated a return on tangible equity of 11.3%. Our top-line grew by 9% year-on-year to GBP29.1 billion, and we achieved our NII guidance for the group and for Barclays UK. Our cost income ratio once again improved year-on-year to 61%.

And the group loan loss rate of 52 basis points was comfortably within the 50 basis points, 60 basis points through the cycle guidance. We have also announced today GBP3.7 billion of shareholder distributions for 2025.

This is up from GBP3 billion in 2024. This includes dividends of GBP1.2 billion and share buybacks of GBP2.5 billion, and that includes a billion pounds tranche which we announced today. And importantly, we remain well capitalized, ending the year at the top end of our 13% to 14% CET1 range after accounting for today's buyback. We are delivering these improvements as we said we would.

In 2025, we simplified the bank further, achieving GBP700 million of gross efficiency savings versus the GBP500 million target which we had had for the year. We divested the remaining non-strategic businesses, and we announced a long-term partnership for payment acceptance.

Operational improvements across the group are creating a better Barclays, driving stronger financial performance. All our divisions generated double-digit RoTE in 2025, and this was an improvement on the prior year.

In the investment bank, greater capital productivity and cost efficiency contributed to a 2.1 percentage point increase in RoTE to 10.6%. And the US Consumer Bank RoTE increased 1.9 percentage points to 11%. This reflects additional scale and operational progress to improve the business mix, to improve pricing and improve efficiency.

Finally, we are continuing to rebalance the group towards the three highest returning UK businesses. We have now delivered GBP20 billion of the GBP30 billion RWA growth which we targeted for the end of 2026, and this includes GBP7 billion in 2025. So we see good momentum with six consecutive quarters of organic loan growth in Barclays UK, and five such quarters in the UK corporate bank.

Progress in each of these three areas is delivering structurally higher and more consistent group returns. It has also increased my confidence in, and my expectations for the group. Stronger and more consistent returns mean that we are better equipped to serve our clients, and that we have more capacity to invest in the business.

All of this is providing a solid foundation to create more value for our shareholders in the next phase of our plan through to 2028 and beyond. We will return to this later. Our progress in the last two years reflects the consistently excellent work of our colleagues, over 90,000 of them.

They implement our strategy every day and are core to our success. So I'm therefore pleased to announce today a grant of approximately GBP500 of shares to the vast majority of our colleagues, essentially all full-time employees outside of managing directors.

This is the second year of such a reward, and it is more than just a reward for past effort. We are aligning the actions of our colleagues with the ultimate outcome of their efforts, which is the change in our share price, and I believe this equity ownership is really important for all our colleagues.

With that, over to you, Anna.

Thank you, Venkat, and good morning, everyone. Slide 6 summarizes the financial highlights for the fourth quarter and full year. Before going into the detail, I would remind you that a weaker US dollar reduced our reported income, costs, and impairments.

Return on tangible equity increased from 10.5% to 11.3% year-on-year, in line with guidance. Pre-provision profit increased by 13% as income growth, coupled with efficiency actions supported 3% positive jaws. Profit before tax increased 13% to GBP9.1 billion, and earnings per share by 22% to 43.8p.

My focus, as ever, is on operational progress, which strengthened throughout the year. Income increased by 9% year-on-year to GBP29.1 billion. We grew stable income streams by 9%, supported by 8% growth in retail and corporate businesses, and 17% growth in financing within markets.

The strength and predictability of this growth means, we are upgrading our expected group income to circa GBP31 billion in '26 versus circa GBP30 billion previously. Elsewhere in the investment bank, intermediation revenues increased by 13%, as we helped clients navigate a volatile environment whilst our IB fees were stable.

Group net interest income increased for the fourth consecutive year and by 13% year-on-year to GBP12.8 billion, reflecting three factors. First, stable deposits across the group supported further significant growth of structural hedge income, which I will discuss shortly. Second, lending grew across all divisions, and we exited the year with strong momentum. And third, operational progress in the US Consumer Bank drove stronger NII and NIM.

Turning to the structural hedge. As a reminder, the hedge is designed to reduce income volatility and manage interest rate risk. We had assumed that we reinvest 90% of maturing hedges, but we fully reinvested assets throughout '25. We also reinvested hedges at higher rates than planned.

As a result, hedge income increased GBP1.2 billion to GBP5.9 billion, contributing 46% of group NII excluding IB and head office. The increase that -- in the average hedge duration that I called out last quarter, from three to three and half years, further supports the predictability of hedge income, which I will return to later.

Now moving on to costs. We delivered GBP700 million of gross efficiency savings in '25 and GBP1.7 billion cumulatively towards the GBP2 billion target by '26. These savings have contributed to 10% positive draws since '23. The group cost to income ratio decreased again to 61%, in line with guidance, despite several cost headwinds in the year.

Total cost increased by GBP1 billion to GBP17.7 billion, with nearly half of this coming from the addition of Tesco Bank. And we chose to accelerate some discretionary investments, ending the year with structural cost actions around the top of the [GBP200 million] to GBP300 million guided range.

The ['25] group cost base also included some items that we do not expect to repeat. First, the GBP235 million motor finance provision in Q3, without which we would have ended the year at 60%. And second, circa GBP50 million of one-off costs in Q4, including a VAT expense in Barclays UK.

Turning now to impairment. The full year impairment charge of GBP2.3 billion equated to a loan loss rate of 52 basis points, in line with the through the cycle guidance of 50 basis points to 60 basis points. The credit picture remains benign, with low and stable consumer delinquencies and wholesale loan loss rates below the through the cycle range.

The Q4 loan loss rate of 48 basis points fell versus Q3, reflecting lower single name charges in the investment bank. Calibration of our impairment models to better capture consumer behavior resulted in lower loan losses in Barclays UK throughout '25, including in Q4.

With these now largely complete, you should expect the Barclays UK loan loss rate to be closer to 30 basis points from Q1. The US Consumer bank loan loss rate was higher in the quarter, as expected, shown on the next slide. 30- and 90-day delinquencies were seasonally higher versus Q3, and broadly stable year-on-year, and US consumer behaviour remains resilient as we show on slide 95 in the appendix.

The Q4 impairment charge increased GBP52 million quarter-on-quarter, reflecting higher balances. As a reminder, the Q1 loan loss rate tends to remain elevated following holiday related spend in Q4. Turning now to UK lending. We have now deployed GBP20 billion of business growth RWAs in the UK, including GBP13 billion of organic growth, and we exited '25 with strong momentum.

Mortgage balances have grown for six quarters and we delivered GBP3.1 billion of net lending in Q4. Mortgage applications in '25 were higher than in any prior year, supported by Kensington, and increased broker engagement following improvements to the platform in Q3.

We also acquired GBP1.4 million new credit card customers in the year, up from GBP1.1 million in '24. As we show in our operational data pack on slide 79, this included 300,000 new Tesco Bank customers. Supported by this, credit card balances grew to the highest level since 2017.

Core business banking lending has grown for four consecutive quarters, and we expect overall balances to grow in half too as headwinds from the runoff portfolio diminish. UK corporate bank lending grew 18% year-on-year and market share increased 100 basis points in this period to 9.6%.

In each case, we have further to go, supporting our plan to deploy GBP30 billion of RWAs by '26 and onwards from there. Turning to Barclays UK in more detail. You can see financial highlights on slide 15, but I will talk to slide 16. RoTE was 23.8% in the quarter and 20.7% for the year. NII of GBP2 billion increased 11% year-on-year and 3% quarter-on-quarter.

On a full year basis, NII of GBP7.7 billion was in line with guidance, and we expect an increase to between GBP8.1 billion and GBP8.3 billion in '26. The hedge is expected to drive around GBP550 million of additional NII. As I'll cover in more detail later, this is a smaller allocation of the total hedge income growth versus 25%, with more growth now allocated elsewhere in the group.

We expect to circa GBP100 million product margin impact in our mortgage book, driven by maturities of higher margin loans written during the stamp duty holiday in early '21. This will be weighted to half one. We also expect lending growth to continue throughout the year.

As a planning matter, we expect this benefit to be offset by continued, but easing deposit margin compression. These effects will lower NII quarter-on-quarter in Q1, with stability and growth from Q2 and Q3, and on a year-on-year basis, we expect growth in each quarter of '26.

Non-NII of GBP247 million was broadly stable year-on-year, with a full year just above GBP1 billion. We expect a similar level in '26, with some seasonal variation. The one-off items I described earlier accounted for around half of the year-on-year increase in operating costs in Q4. These should not repeat in Q1 '26.

Moving on to the Barclays UK balance sheet. Deposit balances increased GBP3.1 billion versus Q3 and were broadly stable versus last year. Customers continued to seek higher yielding products and time deposits, which both grew quarter-on-quarter. Lending grew for the sixth consecutive quarter and by 4% year-on-year, driven by mortgages and cards.

Moving on to the UK corporate Bank. RoTE was 19.1% in the quarter and 18.9% for the year. Q4 income grew by 18%, while costs grew by 8% as we accelerated discretionary investments. These investments support delivery of a high 40s cost income ratio in '26, following a 4% improvement in '25 to 51%.

Q4 NII growth of 22% reflected stronger volumes across both sides of the balance sheet. Lending grew 18% year-on-year, reflecting improvements in the lending process. Deposits grew by 7%, resulting in a 34% loan to deposit ratio, up 3% points.

Turning now to private bank and wealth management. RoTE was 26.3% for the year, on track for the greater than 25% target for '26. Q4, RoTE was impacted by higher costs from an acceleration of investments and a historic litigation charge. This was small in the context of the group but reduced this division's Q4 RoTE meaningfully to 12.6%.

Client assets and liabilities grew 9% year-on-year, and assets under management grew 11%. More than half of this AUM growth came from net new assets under management of GBP3.3 billion, including GBP0.6 billion in Q4. This contributed to 4% quarter-on-quarter income growth, and we expect continued volume and income growth in '26.

Turning now to the investment bank. As a reminder, our objective here is to generate higher structural returns by improving the productivity, mix and efficiency of the business. Risk-weighted assets have been stable for four years.

Income to average RWAs has increased by 110 basis points since '23 to 6.6%. In the top right, more stable income from financing and the International Corporate Bank grew 14% and accounted for 42% of IB income, up from 32% in '22.

Moving to the bottom left, markets income has grown year-on-year for seven consecutive quarters as we deepen client relationships, and investment banking income has grown for five of the past seven quarters. Together with seven consecutive quarters of positive operating jobs, this has improved the financial performance of the division.

The investment bank delivered a full year RoTE of 10.6% in '25, up 210 basis points. Q4 RoTE was seasonally low at 4%, up modestly year-on-year. Income grew 7%, which we show in more detail on slide 25, and costs were flat. In US dollars, markets income was up 17% year-on-year, delivering around two third of the investment bank's income in the quarter.

FICC and equities grew 14% and 21% respectively. We saw particular strength in securitized products within FICC and prime and equity derivatives in equities. Financing income grew 20% year-on-year and for the sixth consecutive quarter, with prime balances up 30% year-on-year, including strong growth in Asia.

In investment banking, income was broadly stable. The US government shutdown weighed on ECM activity, with the majority of Q4 IPOs pushed into [half one '26]. This was offset by a 7% increase in DCM fees and an 18% increase in advisory fees.

The M&A pipeline is strong, and our share of announced fees and volumes due to complete in '26, has increased year-on-year. International corporate bank income was broadly stable, including 5% growth in transaction banking income.

Turning now to the US Consumer Bank. Operational progress has continued. Net receivables grew 5% quarter-on-quarter and 10% year-on-year, around half of which related to the addition of the General Motors balances at the end of Q3.

Our partnership cards business has grown faster than the overall market in [16%] of the last 20 quarters. NIM improved slightly versus Q3 to 11.6%, supported by the repricing that we undertook in '24 and portfolio mix. Retail deposits grew 5% quarter-on-quarter, and 20% year-on-year, which improved the funding mix.

And we continue to drive greater digital interactions, supporting a 41% cost income ratio in the quarter. We expect this progress to continue, reflecting sustainable improvements in returns. Q4 RoTE of 15.8% was supported by a one-off benefit, which I'll come to shortly, adjusting for which RoTE was 12.5%. And the full year RoTE increased 190 basis points to 11%.

In US dollars, Q4 income grew by 28% year-on-year, whilst costs were up 4%. NII increased 19%, reflecting stronger volumes and margins. Following a review of customer behavior, we have updated our assumptions to reflect more transacting versus revolving balances and longer duration customer relationships. This has allowed us to more precisely allocate partner rewards, which has two accounting effects.

First, a one-off benefit largely in non-NII of circa GBP45 million in Q4. Second, an ongoing change in income mix, reducing non-NII by circa GBP50 million from Q1, offset by a broadly equivalent increase in NII. Q1 NIM will be around 12.5%, with total income of circa GBP950 million.

There are considerable inorganic changes in the business in '26, so to help with modeling, we have included some details in slide 96 in the appendix. Following the sale of the AA portfolio in Q2, we expect NIM to rise to nearly 14% in half two, supporting a circa 12% RoTE in '26 before the AA gain on sale.

We ended the quarter with a CET1 ratio of 14.3%. This included 33 basis points of capital generation from profits. Given this strong capital position, we have announced a GBP1 billion share buyback and a GBP0.8 billion final dividend, equivalent to 5.6p per share.

Looking ahead, we continue to expect between GBP19 million and GBP26 billion of regulatory RWA inflation. Within this, the circa GBP16 billion effect of IRB migration in the US Consumer Bank remains our best estimate. Around GBP5 billion of that will now happen with the implementation of Basel 3.1 on January 1, '27, with the remainder anticipated that year.

We expect a reduction in the group pillar 2A requirement following each of these changes. We have been operating around the top of our 13% to 14% CET1 range, with the returns and distributions in the plan announced today based on that level. Post implementation, we will consider where we operate across the range.

More broadly, in the UK we welcome the constructive tone in the recent FPC review of capital requirements and will continue to engage closely with the Bank of England. Turning now to the RWA walk. Investment bank RWAs decreased due to seasonality and accounted for 55% of group RWAs at the end of the year.

The reduction in Barclays UK reflected a securitization in Q4 to manage risk on the balance sheet. As usual, a word on our overall liquidity and funding. We have a strong and diverse funding base, including a 73% LDR and an NSFR of 135%.

And we are highly liquid across currencies with an LCR of 170%. These measures reflect purposeful and prudent management of our balance sheet, delivering resilience. And thus, ensuring we have the capacity to support customers in a range of economic environments. TNAV per share increased 17p in the quarter and 52p year-on-year to 409p. Attributable profit, added 9p and 43p per share, respectively.

Movements in the cash flow hedge reserve added 5p per share in the quarter, and we expect this to largely unwind by the end of '26, adding around 9p to TNAV. To summarize, we are pleased with the group's performance in the second year of our three-year plan, having achieved all our targets and guidance.

We now expect group income of GBP31 billion in '26, GBP1 billion more than originally expected. And continued operational progress means we are more confident in delivering target rota greater than 12% in '26. Venkat will now outline the next three years of the plan, before I take you through the '28 financial targets in more detail.

Venkat, over to you.

Right. Thank you again, Anna. And welcome back. Barclays is now on a journey to sustainably higher financial returns. I think of this journey as taking place in four stages. First, from 2021 to '23, we stabilize the bank's financial profile, exercising capital discipline in the investment bank, while starting to build out our areas of strength.

Second, since the launch of our simpler, better, more balanced strategy in February 24, we've positioned the bank for income growth and for higher returns. We have simplified our processes to drive efficiency, and we exited non-strategic businesses. We've invested in digital capabilities to create a better customer experience. And we've grown our highest returning UK businesses to create a more balanced Barclays with more stable returns.

Today, we set out the third stage of this plan, on the way to the fourth. In this third stage, we will build on the foundations we have created so far to increase returns for the bank and to make them resilient across a range of environments.

Year-by-year, we are improving the profit signature of the bank. Stronger financial results create the capacity to invest to secure sustainably higher returns. This is the fourth stage, and it extends beyond 2028. Two years ago, we presented a vision anchored in measured ambition and disciplined delivery.

I said then, that we were building a potent set of businesses, which were strong in themselves and mutually reinforcing. Our vision was harnessed to our home UK market, where we aimed to deepen our presence, even as we engaged with the world from London.

Our vision today is one of accelerating ambition. Still anchored in disciplined delivery. We will forge segment leading, operationally efficient businesses that are primed to support growth, and we will drive structurally deeper client relationships by connecting these businesses.

We have more capacity to invest. We build upon a strong track record of delivery. Our drive is greater, and our commitment is unwavering. We will increase investments twofold to drive deep technological transformation and modernization of the bank. This includes embedding AI at scale across the group to deliver better products and services.

And importantly, We will pursue our ambition while generating higher returns in each of the next three years. In 2028, we are targeting a return on tangible equity of greater than 14%, up from greater than 12% for 2026. Stronger capital generation will enable greater than GBP15 billion of distributions across the period of '26 to '28.

And this provides capacity for additional investment and growth beyond the levels set out in the plan today. And as we have done, we will exert considerable discipline over any investment, given the importance which we place on shareholder distributions.

In 2026, we expect the investment bank to represent a mid-50% of group RWAs. This is above the initial target, and it reflects the postponement of previously anticipated regulatory changes. We expect this proportion to fall to about 50% by 2028, as we continue to maintain broadly stable RWAs in the investment bank and deploy more capital in our consumer and corporate businesses.

We will continue to be guided by three goals, and these are to make Barclays simpler, to run it in a better way, and to make it more balanced. Our journey began by creating a simpler business structure, organized and operating in a simpler way. It continued with the simplification of our processes and customer journeys to improve the quality of our service and to drive efficiency.

In the next three years, we will be deploying digital capabilities and AI to further this progress. To harness these technologies successfully, we must standardize our data, we must modernize our approaches, and we must harmonize systems and processes.

Delivering in this manner will not only enable greater productivity, it will improve our operational resilience, our reliability and security. And importantly And I'll come back to this, it will create a fulfilling working environment for our colleagues. For some time now, technology has revolved around our businesses.

Now, our businesses are revolving around technology. Customer interactions in the US Consumer Bank are almost entirely digital today. Elsewhere in the group, we've made significant progress to build easy to use customer facing platforms, and we'll continue on that journey.

By 2028, we will deliver a simpler but more sophisticated suite of products and AI enabled services. So how are we doing this? Our transformation is built on 3 pillars Cloud Computing, Data Platforms, and AI adoption. To date, we've made the most progress in employing cloud computing built on scalable and robust infrastructure.

We are one of the leading adopters in the sector with 89% of applications on the cloud versus 75%, two years ago. And this platform provides greater stability and faster product deployment. We're also migrating core data onto a standardized platform. This helps us to provide personalized services for our customers and to implement models more rapidly.

And by building on these modular foundations, we can accelerate the development, testing and deployment of code and models. So with cloud infrastructure and data platforms in place, we are now able to deploy AI at scale.

Across the group, we have more than 250 AI tools and models in use, and by 2028, we expect more than half of our customer journeys in the US Consumer Bank to be digitally personalized. Technology is creating a more stimulating working environment for our colleagues, who are at the heart of these developments, and let me share some examples.

In the past two years, we've held a number of AI hackathons where employees prototype quick solutions to existing business problems. Every time I visit a hackathon, including one just two weeks ago, I'm overwhelmed by the seemingly limitless ambition and inventiveness of our colleagues. And their winning ideas translate into actual projects and actual products. This includes an AI chatbot that we recently launched for FX trading, we call it Boxbot.

And this tool delivers FX [coats] 75% faster than the previous approach. It is driving better execution for our traders, and swifter service for our clients. In the US Consumer Bank, we are launching a conversational AI tool in our app. This accelerates customer query responses by 95%. And enables more personalized service.

We've also built the infrastructure and provided colleagues with tools to drive greater efficiency and productivity. In doing so, we enable them to perform in the economy of the future. The rollout of GitLab to 19,000 developers means we are now able to implement code 15% faster.

And we are one of the largest users of Microsoft co-pilot in the financial services industry, with around 90% of our colleagues on the system. In 2025 alone, this saved our teams more than 1 million hours of work. So far I've spoken about improvements in the way we engage with clients and how they engage with us.

I want Barclays to be renowned for operational performance, excellent operational performance. And to me, Operational performance and financial success are two sides of the same coin. With three quarters of our colleagues engaged in operating the bank, simpler operations can improve efficiency materially.

So let me just highlight two examples to bring this to life. In finance, Anna's area, we're simplifying our accounting platforms, moving from 11 to 3 subledgers within the trading book, and this will lead to fewer manual reconciliations, faster reporting, and more efficient data analysis.

On the risk side, close to my own heart. Our wholesale credit risk systems remain overly manual, and so we're rebuilding the architecture and using AI to aggregate and analyze data and generate reports. This supports fast and accurate credit decisions.

To summarize, the simpler Barclays is both well organized and well run for colleagues and customers alike, and at the beating heart of this. Is a standardized infrastructure supporting harmonized processes and enabling modern approaches to product development and delivery.

And it's powered and curated. By our talented and inventive colleagues. Moving to better. Having a simpler business means we can focus on delivering better service for our customers, and this results in improved returns for our shareholders. In this next stage, we're building a better bank by forging segment leading businesses and deepening client relationships.

To me, segment leadership is built on two pillars, best in class offerings and deep client relationships. And we begin from a strong position. We are the largest non-US investment bank with deep expertise in fixed income and financing markets.

We are a leading UK retail bank with an established and growing private bank and wealth management business. And our US Consumer Bank is highly sought is a highly sought after partner for customers and corporate clients alike.

The second pillar of segment leadership is combining the strengths of our products in each business. And our capabilities across businesses. In doing so, we create deeper client relationships. And there are significant potential to increase connections between Barclays UK and the private bank and wealth management, through a premier proposition.

The acquisition of best tech in the US allows us to bring market leading digital lending capabilities to our credit card partners. And as the only UK bank, UK investment bank. We bring a unique global reach and sophisticated capabilities to our UK corporate clients. But by investing to strengthen these connections, we make each business individually stronger.

And by forging connections across the group, we will unlock sources, new sources of fee growth beyond 2028. So let me share how I think about this, and I'll start with the investment bank. As I said, Barclays is the leading non-US investment bank. We are UK domiciled. But we actually look more American than European, with 50% to 60% of our revenues coming in the US. The investment bank has built a diverse and stable income mix.

Two years ago when I stood in front of you, I said that improving the investment bank was the hardest part of our plan. So what have we done and how have we done it? At that time, we had asked our business to do four things. First, to leverage further the traditional areas of strength.

And for a long time, fixed income has been the calling card of Barclays. This is true in trading, financing, debt capital markets. And in markets, we identified three focused businesses where we plan to grow income by gaining share European rates, equity derivatives, and securitized products.

We've made good progress, gaining share by about 150 basis points between 2023 and the first half of 2025. We have also leveraged our historical strength in fixed income financing to grow in prime. My second ask was to drive greater capital productivity. The business has consistently increased return on RWAs.

Now we will build on those successes. The third request was to increase fee share. The bankers who we hired in 2023 and 2024 have become more productive. Early results are good, but there is more to do, and so we will continue to invest and realize the full benefits of this investment over time.

The final ask was to deepen relationships in the international corporate bank. And here we've made strong progress rolling out what we call our treasury coverage model beyond the top 1,500 clients of the bank. And in the next three years, we will leverage strong transaction banking capabilities from the UK corporate bank and build on existing debt capital market strengths.

We will be providing a more complete service to global corporates. And in doing so, we expect the International Corporate Bank to become a larger part of the investment bank by 2028. And this will remain an important source of fee growth beyond 2028.

And we'll discuss this later. Turning to Barclays UK. Barclays aims to be the premier bank for all UK customers. We have a strong customer base, including around 1.1 million, what we call mass affluent customers in Barclays UK.

Our premier proposition provides exclusive rewards and priority service for this cohort. But only 50% of eligible customers have a Premier account. This provides a material opportunity to increase engagement. Investment to improve our service has raised NPS scores among premier customers.

And we plan to enhance our offering further by expanding the product range and rewards. We can also support this segment's investment needs more fully. And we will achieve this by strengthening connections between Barclays UK and private bank and wealth management.

Within Barclays UK, we have identified 400,000 customers who could benefit from financial advice. In 2025 alone, we onboarded 65,000 customers to Barclays Direct Investing, which is the new name for our digital self-investment platform. And in 2026, we will launch Premier Wealth Management to provide planning and advice to Premier customers.

This will be human led. But digitally enabled, fairly priced, transparently constructed, and clearly disclosed. Turning now to the US Consumer Bank. Our leading digital US consumer bank is delivering strong growth and customer engagement. Our focus partnership business was among the top four fastest growing credit card businesses in 16 of the last 20 quarters.

And since 2023, we have achieved a 12% organic growth in receivables. By driving growth and customer engagement in this way, we are retaining existing card partners and attracting new ones. Last year, we renewed partnerships with [Upromise], Carnival, and Wyndham Hotels, and we successfully integrated General Motors.

Operational progress in the US Consumer Bank is also driving higher returns for Barclays. We will continue to use our digital deposit capabilities. In fact, the launch of a tiered savings product in 2024 has enabled 34% retail deposit growth, with the cost of this funding being about 50 basis points below the funding it replaced.

And in doing so, we support the broader banking needs of our card customers. The acquisition of Best Egg in the second quarter of '26 will further expand the breadth of our digital capabilities. Around 90% of Best Egg's consumer loan originations come through digital channels, including online aggregators.

And Best Egg strong capabilities and enable flexible product design to suit a range of customer needs. We will leverage these capabilities to accelerate growth, including through closer integration with our card partners. So as you can see, the US Consumer Bank is more than just a cards business.

I strongly believe that happy and satisfied customers are the [Sine Qua Non] of any enterprise. We aim to improve customer service by investing in it deeply, making it a point of ambition and pride. And as I said earlier, operational excellence and financial success are two sides of the same coin. I see them as the same.

In Barclays UK last year, we launched a new platform to improve materially the speed of more applications for more than 26,000 mortgage brokers. Digital adoption in the US Consumer Bank is already higher than in any of our divisions, and as I said, we're deploying AI tools to improve personalization further and ease of use.

We're also making it easier for customers to come to Barclays, including in the private bank and wealth management division. Additional platforms are a critical part of providing a superb experience to deepen customer engagement.

This year, we will relaunch the Barclays app to deliver more personalized support through digital channels. Even as we emphasize digital engagement, we recognize that customers sometimes value the quality and depth of engaging with us in person, especially with complex issues and in important life moments. So we will look to enhance and expand our branch footprint. This will enable us to tailor our services to meet the changing preferences of our customers.

And in the US Consumer Bank, we are leveraging our capabilities across cards, deposits, and loans to drive even greater customer engagement. The secret sauce in our investment bank is in our synergies, which we use to deepen client relationships.

We are big enough to offer multiple sophisticated products to our clients, and we have the nimbleness and the cultural drive to customize delivery and create tailored solutions. We now rank top 5 with 62 of our top 100 market clients. This is up from 30 in '21, 49 and '23, and we're on track of our target of 70 in 2026.

Our leading fixed income and prime equity financing products are integrated on a single platform. Operating in this way provides a single view of risk both for the client and for Barclays. And of our top100 market clients, 97 are also financing clients.

So by continuing to leverage our integrated financing platform, we do two things. First, we build a stronger foundation of stable income, which supports returns in a range of environments. And second, we deepen relationships and drive greater engagement across the investment bank, including an intermediation.

So over the next three years, we will bring together our investment banking and transaction banking strengths to accelerate growth in the international corporate bank. We are the top sterling clearing bank. We have a comprehensive suite of products and differentiated payment strength.

By replicating some of these capabilities in the US, we have already driven a circa 140% growth in dollar deposits since 2023. And we plan to leverage the strength in other products through simple but complete digital channels. In Europe, we will also extend the reach of our suite existing product suite from 9 to 15 countries to provide a more complete client coverage.

We're also creating a better client experience to support this growth. So by the end of the first quarter of this year, all UK corporate clients will be enabled on an enhanced platform that we call iPortal. This combines five previously separate platforms for corporate banking into one. And in doing so, we make it easier for clients to access a broader range of products.

Across the banking system, technology is not just affecting how we do business, it's also affecting what business we do. And nowhere is this likely to be greater than in new asset types and new payment methods.

We're deeply engaged in understanding the role that digital assets will play in meeting the future needs of our clients. We're developing our own tokenized deposits to increase the speed and simplicity of transactions, and we're testing retail and wholesale use cases, including for corporate bond issuance and investment.

We have been structurally improving the profit signature of Barclays, and we're doing it in two ways. First, by changing the mix of the group, by growing our highest returning UK businesses. And I'm pleased with our progress, having grown these businesses from 30% of Group RWAS to 34% in the last two years. We also now expect higher returns in Barclays UK.

We will continue this progress, increasing lending by more than 5% annually, while generating an RoTE greater than 20% across the three UK businesses. Second, we said we would strengthen returns in the lower returning divisions.

The US Consumer Bank RoTE has increased from 4% in 2023 to 11% in 2025, in all the ways I described to you, and we expect this to build to mid-teens while absorbing regulatory RWA headwinds. And when I stood in front of you two years ago, I said we would increase returns in the investment bank by improving productivity on a stable RWA base. And I'm very pleased with the progress to date.

IB RoTE is up from 7% to 11% in two years. But we have more work to do, with greater visibility one year out to the end of '26, we expect the investment bank to generate circa 12% RoTE this year, and by 2028, we expect this to rise to more than 13%.

Let me be very clear, we remain ambitious for this business and for the returns it should be generating. And importantly, this should be done on a sustainable basis. More broadly, the ongoing change in the mix of RWAs across the group means that we are relying less on the IB, to drive improvements in Group RoTE. This is exactly as it should be.

In summary, the better Barclays will continue to show higher returns and will also be built on segment leading businesses which offer the best in client service and experience. Our third goal is to create a more balanced Barclays. We will continue to maintain capital discipline in the investment bank. While growing parts of the retail and corporate businesses.

But being balanced -- being more balanced, also means growing new sources of fee income beyond 2028. Two years ago, I said that every global bank had to be strong at home. We've been a UK centered bank for more than three centuries, and it remains a great place in which to do business and from which to do business.

The economy is resilient, the legal and regulatory environment is both strong and trusted. And we remain committed to investing and growing in this our home market. Our investment will focus on diversifying sources of NII beyond deposit income.

And we will increase UK lending in two main ways. First, we will leverage strong multi-brand offerings to reach new customers. For instance, the acquisition of Kensington in 2023 enabled us to provide mortgages to more complex borrowers. And the acquisition of Tesco Bank added significant scale in unsecured and open market capabilities and personal loans.

Second, investment into the business is supporting growth by simplifying and improving customer journeys, as I discussed earlier. We are encouraged by progress in the UK corporate bank and expect momentum in core business banking lending to build in 2026.

Importantly, we expect to grow UK lending by more than 5% annually in the next three years, above the growth in nominal GDP. And we will do this by continuing to grow in segments, where we were underrepresented and by leveraging our expanding expanded product range and capabilities.

We will invest to support growth in the next three years. We plan to more than double investment to support growth and efficiency compared to the previous three years. We will accelerate the adoption of digital technologies and AI across the group.

And investments in the next three years will be substantially more weighted towards new sources of fee income growth beyond 2028. Through these investments, we will continue to develop best in class offerings, which is the first pillar of segment leadership.

As I've said, we will also build connections across our business, and this is the second pillar of segment leadership. In the UK, new capabilities will support customers across the wealth continuum. We will leverage UK transaction banking strength in the international corporate bank.

And Best Egg will enable us to originate assets directly for investors in our leading US asset-backed securities business in the investment bank. So as we move beyond 2028, we expect more of our growth to come from fee income versus net interest income.

And by building more diverse sources of revenue this way, we support more resilient returns. And we position ourselves better to navigate a range of environments. So changes in the operating environment globally present both risk and opportunities for large global banks like Barclays.

And we look to manage this in three ways. First, by building strong customer businesses diversified by geography, customer, product, and income type. Second, by deepening client relationships across products and where appropriate across business segments. And third, through diligent management of economic, financial, operational, and technological risks.

AI, for example, is a transformative opportunity which contains risks that need to be managed. And so to harness the technology successfully, we are standardizing our data, modernizing our infrastructure, and harmonizing our business processes. By approaching risk and opportunities in this way, we aim to deliver consistently for our customers with strong operational performance.

And this in turn will generate resilient financial performance in a range of environments for our shareholders. So, to bring this all together, progress in the past two years provides a solid foundation for the next phase of our journey, and we are confident in the path to 2028. Removing from a period of measured ambition to one of accelerating ambition.

And now I'm going to pass it over to Anna to take you through the financial details of the plan. Anna?

Our confidence in the plan that Venkat has outlined reflects three factors. First, we plan on realistic assumptions that put delivery in our control. Second, the plan includes a significant increase in discretionary investment to support our future growth.

And in doing so, we are intentionally prioritizing sustainably higher, longer-term returns over stronger, shorter-term RoTE. And third, that delivery is grounded in existing momentum. For example, target income CAGR of more than 5% compares to 7% delivered since '23, as you can see on the top row.

Planned UK lending of more than 5% is in line with the momentum we've seen in '25. And we expect investment banking income to RWAs to increase by more than 40 basis points to greater than 7%, having increased 110 basis points in the last two years.

Our planning assumption is for a low single-digit IB income CAGR, '25 to '28 versus 9% achieved so far, and I'll come back to this in more detail. The low 50s target cost income ratio in '28 represents more of a step change, but we are confident in delivering this, underpinned by circa GBP2 billion of gross cost efficiency savings over the next three years. This compares to GBP1.7 billion achieved in the last two.

And I will also come back to this topic in more detail later. Stable income streams in the retail and corporate businesses will materially drive income growth in RoTE in the next three years. We expect modest cost growth, supported by planned efficiency savings and normalization of the elevated cost base in '25.

This combination will deliver positive costures in every year of the plan, yielding a low 50s group cost income ratio by [28%]. So what drives income from here? As I said, in the past two years, the group has delivered a 7% income CAGR.

This mainly reflected management actions, but the environment has also been favorable, reflected in upgraded 2026 income guidance of circa GBP31 billion. As a planning matter to '28, we do not assume similar tailwinds in rates or in investment banking wallet growth. So we expect income CAGR to moderate to more than 5% in the next three years.

Most growth comes from Group NII. Excluding the IB and head office, which has grown 8% annually since '23. This reflects the UK lending CAGR target of greater than 5% and the stability of our deposit franchises, which underpins the structural hedge.

But it also reflects progress outside of the UK in USCB where balanced growth and NIM expansion supported 11% year-on-year NII growth in '25. In '26, we expect group NII to increase at least to at least GBP13.5 billion, up from GBP12.8 billion and '25, and for Barclays UK NII to increase to between GBP8.1 billion and GBP8.3 billion.

Relative to our previous plan, the investment bank contributes relatively less against a flat wallet assumption. Over time, we do expect the mix of our income growth to pivot more towards asset based NII and fees versus deposit income. That's why we remain very focused on diversifying sources of NII beyond deposit income by continuing to grow lending. But for the next three years, the structural hedge alone will deliver 50% of planned income growth.

We have already locked in GBP6.4 billion of gross structural hedge income in '26 and GBP17 billion over the next two years. We plan to fully reinvest maturing hedges as we did throughout '25, and to assume a reinvestment rate of around 3.5%. This is below the current seven year swap rate of 3.9%, which has become the most relevant proxy given the hedge duration.

The average yield of maturing hedges remains below this level in '26, '27, and '28, at circa 1.5%, 2.1%, and 2.7% respectively. This will result in continued structural hedge income growth, including circa GBP1 billion in '26. The increase in the average hedge duration to 3.5 years during '25 will reduce the quantum of maturing hedges to circa GBP35 billion per year from around GBP50 billion in recent years.

This slows the pace of structural hedge income growth but therefore prolongs the expected positive effect until at least '29. Also note the higher proportion of equity hedge and longer duration of product hedges outside of the UK means it will attract circa 55% of growth in '26 versus [75%] in '25.

This change in mix is equivalent to circa GBP200 million less income in Barclays UK in '26, which instead will occur in other businesses, including the Investment Bank. Two years ago, we set out a plan to increase the investment bank returns by improving RWA productivity and modestly growing costs.

Since then, income to our average RWAs has increased by 110 basis points to [6.6], driven by 9% income CAGR against flat RWAs. In global markets, we increased RWA productivity by 60 basis points and grew RWAs to take advantage of the environment.

And in investment banking, we increased productivity by 150 basis points and released RWAs. Further capital productivity remains central to the investment bank's journey to higher returns, with a target of greater than 7% RWA productivity by 2028, having absorbed the impact of Basel 3.1. In part, this will come from a continued review of the loan book, which is around 60% complete.

Of the GBP2.1 billion increase in income since '23, two thirds came from global markets, where we have built capacity. Financing income grew by GBP0.6 billion in a strong industry wallet, and we achieved the '26 target one year early. This is particularly important, given our focus on stable sources of revenue within the investment bank.

In our three focus businesses and markets, we grew share by 150 basis points, between '23 and [half one '25], and income grew by GBP0.4 billion. In investment banking, we have meaningfully improved RWA productivity, which was our main objective. Progress towards our secondary objective to add scale through fee share has been slower, although banking fees grew in a market 30% larger than we had planned.

Our objective now is to consolidate these gains. We will further deepen our relationships with our top 100 clients and markets and our three focused businesses and financing, and we will continue to build banker productivity, including an ECM and M&A, which are capital light.

In financial terms, given a flat wallet assumption, our plan does not therefore include material benefits from wallet growth to 2028. We expect proportionately more growth from the ICB. As we leverage the treasury coverage model and the transaction banking investments outlined by Venkat. This builds on the circa 140% growth in deposits achieved in two years.

And as a result, we expect the International Corporate Bank to be a larger part of the IB, leading to more stable income overall. Moving on to costs on slide 66. We delivered positive cost [jaws] in each of the past three years and expect positive jaws in each of the next three years. This is a result of the income growth we've just discussed and modest cost growth to 2028.

So what underpins this cost pathway? First, we don't expect around GBP0.3 billion of one-off costs in '25 to repeat, being motor finance and around GBP50 million of unrelated one-offs in Q4. Second, we expect circa GBP2 billion of gross efficiency savings by '28, split roughly evenly across the years. This includes around GBP0.2 billion of reduced Tesco Bank costs.

We will deliver this by modernizing processes and platforms to increase efficiency as Venkat outlined. These savings will more than offset the effects of inflation and business growth over the next three years. We expect annual investment costs to increase by around GBP0.8 billion by '28, including circa GBP0.6 billion from the acquisition of Best Egg in Q2 '26.

This will result in modest overall cost growth and a high 50s cost income ratio in '26, with broadly stable costs thereafter to '28, supporting a low 50s cost income ratio. The Barclays UK cost profile is an important part of this overall shape, so let me briefly cover the dynamics here.

Barclays UK has been on a transformational journey for several years, reducing the cost to income ratio from high 60s in 2021. Dual running of Tesco Bank added circa GBP400 million to costs in '25, including GBP100 million integration costs.

Other costs increased by circa GBP200 million net of efficiency savings. This was due to increased investment, as well as the GBP50 million one-off items I mentioned earlier. In '26, we expect a modest reduction in costs versus '25 and a low 50s cost income ratio as we continue to integrate Tesco Bank and invest in the business.

By '28, we expect larger growth and net efficiency savings in line with the group, and for Tesco Bank costs to fall by circa GBP200 million. As a result, we expect Barclays UK costs to fall in each of the next three years, contributing to a mid-40s cost income ratio in '28.

Our investments to date, organic and inorganic, are delivering revenue growth across the group. Investment in the financing platform from ['23 to '25] has for example, supported 60% growth in prime balances. And our investment in the mortgage broker platform has supported more than GBP14 billion of mortgage applications since its launch.

We have also realized GBP100 million of funding synergies on Tesco and significant margin benefits through Kensington as both acquisitions support UK lending growth. We plan to double annual organic investment by '27, focused on technology change and fee growth.

In addition, we expect operational costs of Best Egg of circa GBP0.3 billion in '26 and GBP0.4 billion in '28. This highlights the increased intensity of investment at this stage to support stronger fee growth and returns beyond '28.

Cost discipline remains a key focus of our plan and is the lever that we have most control of. During '26, we expect a high 50s group cost to income ratio improving again from [61%] in '25. This reflects strong progress in the UK businesses in particular. And looking ahead, we expect further improvements to deliver a low 50% group cost income ratio by '28.

Turning now to Impairment. The group has operated around the through the cycle target loan loss range of 50 basis points to 60 basis points for the past decade, and this guidance remains appropriate. It reflects two offsetting factors. First, in Barclays UK, low arrears and high credit card repayment rates have contributed to a loan loss rate consistently below the through the cycle expectations.

Strong mortgage affordability criteria and credit card quality supports structurally lower impairment in the UK market. As a result, we now expect a lower through the cycle loan loss rate in Barclays UK of circa 30 basis points versus 35 basis points previously.

Second, we expect a circa 500 basis points through the cycle loan loss rate in USCB. This is up from circa 400 basis points previously, due to the changing portfolio mix. It will be higher in '26 at circa 550 basis points, reflecting post-acquisition stage migration of the General Motors portfolio and retention of some non-performing American Airlines balances. Both effects will diminish in '27 and will be more than offset by higher them.

During the past two years, we have structurally improved Barclay's profit signature. The Investment Bank and USCB now deliver double-digit returns, and we plan to drive these higher whilst continuing to allocate additional capital to our highest returning UK businesses. By '28, we expect capital generation to exceed 230 basis points, an improvement of more than 30% over the next three years.

We continue to exercise disciplined capital allocation, first, by holding a prudent level of regulatory capital. As you have seen, we've been operating around the top of the 13% to 14% target range, ahead of the expected regulatory developments that I discussed earlier.

Second, we will distribute greater than GBP15 billion to shareholders by '28, subject to regulatory and Board approval. And third, we will maintain capacity for selective investments to support structurally higher returns beyond '28.

Given the strength of capital generation, this capacity does exceed the level of investment set out in the plan today. As we have done, we will exert considerable discipline over any investment, given the importance we place on shareholder distributions.

We expect a progressive increase in our total payout in 2026. We are also evolving the mix of distribution to reflect the growing consistency of capital generation and to recognize feedback from shareholders. In addition to the move to quarterly buybacks announced in Q3, we plan to increase the dividend to GBP2 billion in '26 from GBP1.2 billion in recent years. While we continue to prefer share buybacks, we will review the mix of distributions periodically to reflect the level of our returns and the preferences of our shareholders.

Bringing this together on the next slide. Operational progress during the past two years means we are confident in achieving our '26 targets and guidance. But momentum across the group also underpins our confidence in delivering the '28 targets outlined today.

We are focused as ever on driving greater efficiency and operating leverage, protecting returns in a range of environments, and we will drive structurally higher and more sustainable returns beyond '28 by investing to support more diverse sources of income and fee growth.

Over to Venkat for final remarks.

Right. Thank you, Anna. So two years on since our Investor update in February 2024. As we've discussed, we remain on track to deliver our goals. We are moving from a period of measured ambition to one of accelerating ambition. We aim for sustainably stronger returns, greater shareholder distributions, and operational excellence.

The targets which we have shared today are underpinned by structural improvements to the profit signature of the bank, which we have made in the last two years. And our drive to become a simpler, better, and more balanced bank. We plan to continue this progress in the coming three years.

And of course, our journey does not end in 2028. Our ultimate aim is to secure structurally higher and more resilient returns beyond 2028.