At a glance
Our first-half results show we have built a good platform for growth while maintaining cost and balance sheet discipline.
For the period ended 30 June 2023
Highlights:
- Profit before tax of $21.7bn – up $12.9bn vs 1H22
- Revenue increase was driven by higher net interest income
- We completed the $2bn buyback announced at 1Q23 and are announcing a further buyback of up to $2bn, with the intention to complete this in around three months
- Common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio of 14.7% increased by 0.5 percentage points since the end of 4Q22
- Operating expenses of $15.5bn were 4% lower than in 1H22; on a target basis, operating expenses were up 4.3%
- Expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges (ECL) were $1.3bn, up $0.3bn
- Annualised return on average tangible equity (RoTE) was 22.4%, or 18.5% excluding the impact of our acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK) and the reversal of the French retail sale impairment
Group Chief Executive
Outlook
Our strategy has enabled us to further strengthen our balance sheet, providing us with a good platform for growth in the current interest rate cycle, while maintaining cost discipline.
We’re now targeting a RoTE in the mid-teens, which excludes the impact of material acquisitions and disposals.
Given the current market consensus for global central bank rates, we’ve raised our 2023 full-year guidance for net interest income to above $35bn. While the interest rate outlook remains positive, we expect continued migration to term deposits as short-term interest rates rise.
Given current macroeconomic uncertainty, we continue to expect ECL charges of around 40bps of average gross loans in 2023 (including lending balances transferred to held for sale). We continue to use a range of 30bps to 40bps of average loans for planning our ECL charges over the medium to long term.
We remain highly focused on maintaining cost discipline. Our 2023 target is to keep cost growth to approximately 3%, adjusted for currency effects and notable items. Our acquisition of SVB UK, and the related investments internationally, are expected to add approximately 1% to the Group‘s operating expenses.
We intend to manage the CET1 ratio within our medium term target range of 14% to 14.5%, and we aim to manage this range down in the long term. In addition, our dividend payout ratio is 50% for 2023 and 2024, excluding material notable items.
Context behind the numbers
Our first-half profit before tax of $21.7bn included a number of notable items. They included the reversal of the impairment relating to the planned sale of our retail banking operations in France and a provisional gain following the acquisition of SVB UK in March.
Our 1H23 annualised RoTE of 22.4% included the impact of these two items.
From 1 January 2023, we adopted the IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’ accounting standard, which replaced IFRS 4. All prior periods have been restated to allow for comparison.
We no longer report adjusted performance with significant items excluded.
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