NatWest Group plc (NWG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this third sort of session with NatWest. I'm delighted to welcome once more Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest. Thanks very much for coming, Alison.

[ pleasure ].

As with the rest of the sessions, we're going to start off with a polling question, so do please sort of look out for it in your screens and reply. Sort of the question is NatWest has announced a new 9% to 10% ROTE target for 2023. The consensus is not captured. Where do you think the company is more likely to surprise positively versus expectations: number one, reflation and steepening of the curve will drive stronger revenues; number two, stronger-than-expected market share gains in mortgages; number three, cost cutting ahead of plans; number four, provisions well below the 30 to 40 basis points through the cycle guidance; and number five, faster capital return to shareholders. We'll give it a few seconds. Hopefully, that will be helpful to start the debate. If I look at the answers so far, it's -- there's a split between reflation, lower provisions, almost 50% and then faster capital returns and cost cutting. So mainly provisions. Maybe that gives us a good start to the debate, Alison. Thanks again for joining us. It's been your first full year -- full calendar year, I should say, since you took over as CEO. And as you said at the results call, it's not quite the year you had expected. Maybe we can start with your takes in 2020 and where you see NatWest at the moment.

Sure. And I think -- yes, I think we do all agree it's not quite been the year we all expected. But I think the purpose-led strategy we launched last year and the sort of strategic aims of the business in terms of supporting customers through their life cycle, powering the business through innovation and partnership, sort of the simplification in digitization and real discipline around capital have really set us up very well to deal with what has been quite an extraordinary year. And I think we recognized very early on, it wasn't business as usual. So I pivoted very strongly to supporting our customers and also making sure that we could operate resiliently in the very disruptive market that we've been going through. I think the -- in terms of where we sit, I think that the 2020 results show a strong underlying and resilient performance of the business. Our core franchises continue to perform well. We met our cost targets. We showed preprovision profits of GBP 2.9 billion. The resilience of our book, obviously, very secured and good with diversification and the very strong capital position at 18.5% gave us the flexibility and also security to be able to continue to support the economy through the period. So I think the business is in good shape. We didn't pause on the strategic restructuring that we had announced last year. So we continue to do that during the pandemic and made some tough calls in terms of how we were refocusing that [ much ] market, and that team has done, I think, a great job in repositioning that business as well as getting the core engines of the business really growing and investing and being able to benefit from our technology investment in terms of the acceleration and some of the trends created by COVID. So I think we're well positioned, good underlying performance, resilient business and making good progress on our strategic priorities.

That's very clear. Actually, this question is related to the polling question. You presented your new targets with the aim of 9% to 10% ROTE in 2023. We're actually at the lower end of that range. We're already there. The consensus is well below mainly, at least, I think, due to lower revenue expectations. Where do you think you can do better? And where do you see the main revenue drivers going forward?

Yes. I mean we see real opportunity to grow within our business. And in terms of the rating targets, obviously, some assumptions around the economic profile, but also it's important to remember our cross targets, our capital target, impairments coming back to a normalized level and also our CET1 ratio target of 13% to 14%. But in terms of the revenue growth opportunities, we see a number of areas across the business where we have capacity and ability to grow within our risk appetite and whilst maintaining our risk discipline, both in terms of managing pricing volumes in different segments. If I sort of just walk you through the key areas where I think this growth hopefully will come. I think an important first step is the digital transformation that we are seeing across our business. And digital adoption has definitely accelerated and grown during COVID, and I think that offers a number of income opportunities across all of our channels. We're increasingly developing our digital-led journey to be more of an important part of our interaction to meet customer needs and also drive income. And just to give you a sense now in our business, in our retail business, 58% of our customers now only interact with us solely through our digital channels, so that's a very significant shift, and 78% of our customers are regular digital users. That change in mix is very significant. And we're seeing our customers choose to interact with us in a very different way. Our video banking channels, which has enabled [indiscernible] across our network, in January last year, we will be having maybe 100 meetings a week on video banking channels. That's now averaging and regularly increasing to more like 15,000 a week. So you're seeing a real shift in how consumers are continuing to interact with us. And we're seeing transaction volumes through branches continuing to decline. They dropped by 44% last year. We're seeing recent cash drop by 20% to 30%. And some of that will come back, but I think you're seeing a systemic shift in terms of how our customers are interacting with the channels that we have invested in. On our commercial side, nearly 70% of our sales are now all through digital routes. And that's a really significant change. And our Cora chatbot -- AI chatbot is now -- has seen volume growth of over 60%. So we have almost 8 million to 9 million interactions coming through that chatbot, of which 40% are contained, [basically] interactions, [which did] previously go through branches or call centers. So I think the digital shift is an important part. It increases our efficiency of product due to a much more positive engagement with our customers in terms of direct impact. And then more broadly looking at our franchise. If you look at our retail business, we still think there is capacity to grow in that business. You've seen the strong growth that we had in our mortgage business through the course of this year. We're now looking at flow share of around 13%. Our stock share has gone up to 10.9%, and our current account share is 16%. So we've got real capacity to grow, and we're continuing to grow that business well, managing a very disciplined approach to volume and price. And I think that's a very positive. And we're obviously significantly underweight in unsecured, which at this point in the cycle, I'm not unhappy with. That tells me there's ability to grow. In our Private Banking business, we have a very strong asset management business there. AUMs were up by 6% in 2020, and we plan to help more of our customers meet their investment needs, resulting in more AUM growth by supporting our outflow customer base and leveraging the group better. For example, in 2020, we had 1,600 new customers on-boarded in Private Banking, and 20% of those were within the group. So increasingly leveraging our expert teams and supporting the AUM growth. And NatWest Invest, which is our digital online platform, our non-advice journey, has broken through the GBP 1 billion AUM mark. So that gives you a sign of the sort of growth we're continuing to see there. In our commercial bank, where we're the leading bank in business banking and commercial lending, we see real pockets of growth in areas such as infrastructure, green energy and financing and also as the economy recovers, supporting our customers as they grow. And we've had a very strong performance in our lending in renewable energy and green financing. We lent over GBP 12 billion last year. I'd set a target of GBP 20 billion by 2022. We expect to beat that this year. So our expertise, also supported by NatWest Markets, is really helping drive growth there. And obviously, the refocused NatWest Markets is really supporting our corporate and our commercial customers. Our strong FX platform is enabling us to deliver greater value and more interaction with our commercial business and leveraging of our ESG capabilities where we're now the #1 lead manager for green, social and sustainability bonds. So I think those are -- hopefully give you a sense of where we see revenue opportunities to grow the business.

Right. You touched on it in your remarks around your flow market share. But your mortgage balances grew an impressive 8.5% last year. Can you keep up the pace of market share gains? How do you see competition evolving? And obviously, there's been -- there is a big debate around how this market could look like post stamp duty. Do you think the risk -- there's a risk we'd go back to that cutthroat competition we saw a couple of years back in this space?

Look, I think the mortgage market will always be competitive, and we've talked in the past about the excess liquidity that is in the market. But I think from our position, what we've demonstrated is we have both the capacity and the ability to grow, and we're investing quite significantly in our mortgage journey, which is a big part of increasing the retention as well for our customers. So some of the investments we've made in our mortgage journey, we've taken what has been a manual process that takes 23 days to now something that can be done digitally within 15 minutes. So a lot of investment is going into that side of things. I think what you've seen is us growing our stock share. That's now at 10.9% as I said. That used to be down at 8% -- 7%, 8%. So we're growing it in a very disciplined way. We're very focused on making sure we grow volume but protect price. So we're not raising business at any cost, and it is value accretive for us. And I think that being relatively underweight in mortgages gives you the sense that we can continue to grow and deploy our capital and our expertise in that area. What I'm particularly pleased with the team are doing a great job is also our retention levels are increasing. So we're now running at around 80% retention from 70% back in 2019. So those changes in the mortgage journey and the approach we're having to our customers, support them in their life cycle is really important. Now look, I think we've definitely had a stimulus in terms of mortgage growth and activity caused by the stamp due to changes that were made. I think the change in terms of tapering that stamp duty off rather than a cliff edge is positive so we still feel strong demand. But absolutely, we expect pricing to remain competitive and reduce, but we do think that we will be able to continue to write very accretive and valuable business with capacity to grow. The market will remain competitive, but we're comfortable with the investment we're making that we will be able to compete and continue to grow.

Okay. Maybe on Commercial Banking, which you also touched on, obviously, you had a very busy 2020, channeling the different government lending schemes. Do you think that has front-loaded some of the demand? Or are the Bounce Back Scheme a different kind of clients? I'm just trying to help sort of investors understand how do you think the lending is going to perform from hereon as the recovery of this pace.

Yes. I mean there's no doubt that the intervention and the support that's been put into the economy -- the economy has gone into a hard stop as a result of the health crisis that has triggered this economic crisis. And certainly, I think the support that's been put in place through things like the Bounce Back claims and the CBILS schemes have been really important in helping businesses navigate this period when for a lot of them in that business just has been has been shot. Our approach to the Bounce Back loans, and we have around GBP 12.6 billion of drawdowns under the government schemes. And that lending for us is to our own customers. So these are customers who we know. So we extended that support to them to help them through this period. And what we've seen over -- since really Q3 last year, the demand for that scheme has been tapering off. So from a peak, at the point when the loans were first put in place where we were processing around 70,000 applications a day, that's now tapering down to 7 -- 6,000 or 7,000. So demand is tapering off. A lot of what those schemes were put in place was to really support working capital in bridging the cost and the shutdown period. I think in terms of how they were definitely going forward, obviously, they're backed by -- in the place of the Bounce Back Loans, 100% guarantee from the government, the CBILS, an 80% loan. I think what we'll see is behaviorally, we'll start to see that over the course of the year. I think the extension of the support measures such as the extension of the furlough and the different support mechanisms to take off is a positive for business because instead of a cliff risk, there is more support being put in place. And as the economy opens up, as hopefully we come out of lockdown with the vaccination program, we've got a period of time for the economy to start growing again. One expectation for us is that really, a lot of the lending has been really supporting working capital in bridging this period. It's not been for investing in the core businesses. So there's not been a lot of investment for growth. I think a lot of these loans potentially could be extended under the government extension scheme. You can extend your repayment period for 10 years. So I think for some of these businesses, they'll use these loans for working capital purposes and maybe extend the repayment period if they're continuing to trade. What we are seeing is businesses are very liquid. We're seeing lots of cash deposits. In fact, 25% to 30% of the Bounce Back loans that have been drawn down are still sitting as cash in people's balance sheets in their current accounts. In the corporate side, revolving credit facilities are at very low levels of flooring, around 22%, which is pre-COVID levels. So there's a lot of cash sitting there. So I think it's really dependent on those loans being used for working capital purposes as businesses start ramping up and get going again and then weathering their repayment terms. And then it really just depends on the shape of the recovery. I think as the support measures get taken away from the economy, as they taper off towards the end of the year, I think that's when you get to [indiscernible] the procyclicality is potentially, what the underlying scarring to the economy is quite extraordinary period that businesses have had to cope with during the pandemic.

Your guidance obviously also has a cost-cutting target, 4% a year until 2023. Where are the expected cost savings coming from? You were very advanced in downsizing in NatWest Markets. And you've also announced, possibly, you'll be exiting Ireland. So maybe one of the criticisms sometimes -- we sometimes get from NatWest is it's a never-ending restructuring story. Is that -- are you approaching now the end of the reshaping of the business, how do you want to be going forward?

Yes. So one of the key strategic priorities is really focusing on making sure our capital was being used in the most disciplined way possible. And the 2 sort of challenges, I think, we were facing with NatWest Markets were we had too much capital committed to that business and that we focus and we shape to align the business more strategically is well underway. And Robert Begbie and his team have done a fantastic job in getting that business really much more closely aligned and ability to grow and support the core business. And I think Ulster Bank, we announced the phased withdrawal on the basis that business would not be able to meet attainable or cost of capital returns over time. So I think those are the big 2 capital restructuring stories strategically that we have done. And then really, the focus is now on investing and growing the core business in some of the areas I touched on earlier, where we see capacity to grow. We've committed to a GBP 3 billion investment program over the next few years, and that is supporting both growth -- cost efficiency and growth and continuing to accelerate our digital technology and data transformation, which underpins business. So very much, it is about growing the core business. We do think there is still cost efficiency that you can take out of the business, which is why we've committed to the 4% cost reduction coming out. And that's very much focused on a lot of the customer journey reengineering as we use more of our automation tools, more of our digital and data tools to remove manual processes. I mean a good example of what we're able to achieve, I mean, the Bounce Back Loan is a good example. That's an entirely digital end-to-end lending journey, using automation and AI and tools which we stood up in 6 days. So that gives you a sense of the capability. And with the reengineering we've done on our customer journeys, such as our account opening, that has resulted in our NPS for our account opening, going from 16 to 60, and that's by increasingly using automation tools. So a lot of the cost reduction will come out of simplification of our business and more use of our data and our technologies to better quality cost reductions. But in answer to your question, yes, the reshaping is done. We've obviously got to execute and finish on that, and it's really about investing for growth and getting the potential out of those franchises, which are -- have continued to perform well and grow capital and create value.

Yes. Very clear. On outlook, it's quite impressive that you've guided for provisions to be -- the guidance at or below your 30, 40 basis points through the cycle level already this year. What's giving you the confidence to be so firm? You have GBP 27 billion of exposure to vulnerable COVID sectors. How are these holding up? And how do you see asset quality performing as stimulus is lifted?

I mean one thing I would say is the outlook does remain still uncertain. So we're not saying that the outlook is resolved. I think there is still a degree of uncertainty with the shape of the pandemic. I mean we weren't expecting this lockdown. And so the shape of the pandemic remains uncertain. And I think it is too early to say what the underlying economic scarring that has been created as a result of, I think, the last 12 months. But what we have done is we have a much simpler business in terms of the nature of our business, and we have very good risk diversification on the retail side, 94% of our book is secured. We've exercised good capital discipline in terms of our commercial book. So our provisions that we have taken in terms of our IFRS 9 for the preprovisions of GBP 3.2 billion, we think, provide us with good coverage in terms of future look on impairment. And certainly, when we shared our economic -- full economic forecast last year, there have been improvements in terms of economic data since then when we were giving you a sense of GBP 3.5 billion to GBP 4.5 billion of impairments. You can see in Q4 that impairments are running at very, very low levels with provisions in Q4 of GBP 130 million. So we still think that, that uncertainty is there. We don't think the postcyclicality has gone away. We think there is underlying scarring to the economy that with the GBP 3.2 billion of provisions that we've made, we think that is a prudent and sensible approach. And in fact, you can see that all of the support mechanisms like the government schemes that have been put in place have delayed the impact and offset the impact of some of the harm done to the economy. What we are seeing is signs of some stress, but not significant and certainly nowhere near the levels that we were anticipating at this point. But we remain cautious about the outlook and remain, I think, prudently prepared in that perspective. I do think over time, we will move back to 30 to 40 basis points through the cycle given the level of coverage we put in place, the shape that Robert and what the data is now showing us in terms of outlook, and we will obviously continue to actively manage more portfolio as we go through this period. So that's what's given us the comfort in terms of taking the view on where we are on impairments.

Great. Maybe a last question for me before -- we've got a few from the audience, but maybe one last for me. On the capital return, you've guided to a minimum GBP 800 million distribution per year. It doesn't sound very ambitious considering that you've got, on my numbers at least, around GBP 8 billion of excess capital above your targets, if I take the midrange. I understand the guidance is a minimum. So by definition, there's upside. But maybe you can share some thoughts on why GBP 800 million? And what will inform your decisions on the pace of distribution?

Yes. I mean I guess my starting point is we obviously have very strong capital ratios at 18.5% [indiscernible]. And our businesses continue to accrete capital. So I think that's a very strong position. Our guided range is 13% to 14% CET1. We think that is appropriate level of capital for the shape and risk diversification of our business. And so what we wanted to give was a degree of the path of how we would get there. As you say, the GBP 800 million level is the minimum committed to pay out in dividends, which would obviously be subject to regulatory approval. But there are a number of headwinds to think about as you map that path as well as some of the flexibility we would like to attain in different areas and potentially participating in directed buyback in the event that the government determines to sell down some of their stake. But I think just in terms of thinking about the sort of some of the headwinds and some of the different things to consider, there is RWA postcyclicality that we think will come in. As I said, we don't think that has gone away. We think that is still there but just delayed because of continuation of support measures. There are pension contributions that we have committed to making over the next 3 years, GBP 1.5 million to GBP 500 million a year, which is something we contributed to. There are regulatory headwinds in terms of mortgage floors that are coming in, in January 2022, which should be corrected in. And then I think there's capacity to participate on the government-directed buyback. Should they do it on a number of times, we have restrictions on how much we can do each year. So I think there is a path that we would expect to distribute our capital, and that's our trade preference, but there are also some headwinds there as well, which means the path won't be completely linear, but hopefully, gives a sense of our commitment in order to return capital to shareholders.

Maybe we can see read a few from the audience. Can you provide background, any updates on your decision to exit the Republic of Ireland, please?

Yes. So our decision to exit Ulster, I undertook a strategic review of that business in light of the returns that business was making and the outlook. And the conclusion was that we would not be able to make cost of capital or long-term sustainable returns to the shareholders, so the time given, nature of that business in the market. So we've announced a phased withdrawal from that market, and we will do that in a very considerate way over the number of years. It will be capital accretive during the period. We also announced an MoU with AIB in terms of some of the assets that we would look to sell during this period. So it will be -- it's part of our strategic focus in terms of capital returns and unfortunately a tough decision but the right one. And therefore, we'll execute on it in a very considerate way over a number of years with a view to handing back the licenses in due period.

Okay. There's a bit of a technical question but maybe you can touch on -- from a fixed income investor. Do you consider it economically advantageous to call your legacy capital? How do you think the PRA will choose to deal with legacy instruments? Maybe generic comment. I realize it's a bit specific.

Yes. Maybe we'll come back on that. I think let's hope how the PRA will deal with them. So thanks for the question.

Yes. I thought that might [indiscernible]. Actually, sticking with the PRA -- the NatWest -- the PRA gave NatWest the authorization to buy back to GBP 1.25 billion worth of shares. This is above and beyond the guardrails imposed by -- on distribution. It's an endorsement from the regulator that should we also take it as an expectation that there could be placement soon? Would you distribute those amounts if the placements don't come?

So we were obviously very pleased to get that commission in terms of our ability to participate in a directed buyback should that happen that -- as I'm afraid there's always a question for the government as and when they choose to do that. But in the event that they do, we think a directed buyback would be positive use of our capital, and we would like to participate. We're pleased to see in the budget that the government confirmed that it remains their intention to sell down their stake in the NatWest Group and return it to a normalized shareholding structure. So it remains a decision for them in terms of achieving fair value for their shares. And we would -- and are ready and have commission to participate in the event that would happen, but it's very much a matter for them.

Okay. Maybe another one for me. You've also flagged the possibility to pursue other options to create value in your statements and in your plan. Presumably, this is referring to bolt-on acquisitions, for example. What do you think can complement your portfolio? In the past, payments in cards, you also, in your comments, reflected that, underrepresenting cards. You mentioned that in the past. Is that still the case and a potential area of interest? What could you -- what do you think can complement your portfolio?

Yes. On organic, we would look at it through a number of lenses, actions that will either add volume that was strategically aligned with the direction we take in the bank or add capability. The recent acquisition of the Metro mortgage portfolio is a great example of something that mortgages are a core part of our growth that fitted very well in terms of adding some volume that was also value accretive to shareholders and within our risk appetite. So that was a very huge fit for us. So we would absolutely look at things that would allow us to grow within our risk appetite in areas that we're underweight in, unsecured is an obvious area. Our primary focus remains growing organically as I highlighted. We think there are good opportunities to grow where we have the capability and capacity to do that, and we're investing to do that. But also, we will look at inorganic to the extent that they are strategically aligned, value accretive and a good use of capital and allow us to broaden our offering to our customer base. So -- but those would be the type of things that [indiscernible]

And then -- and maybe on NatWest Markets, another one. The wind down is going ahead of schedule in 2020. What does the steady state business look like? You were looking for no profits from that division. Now it looks like it could be profitable. And also the GBP 800 million to GBP 1 billion revenue guidance suggests, I think, raised that improvement in profitability. What gives you the courage as well to give that guidance, given your predecessor in authority was frustrated. Everyone gave guidance on revenues in that division. You seem pretty confident, which is obviously a very good sign, but maybe you can touch on that as well.

Look, I think the team has done a really good job in refocusing NatWest Markets, much more strategically aligned to our core customer base and our strategy, really strong product capabilities in our chosen markets and have -- notwithstanding the disruption of the pandemic nor on with restructuring the business in a really sensible and considered way. We were targeting at the end of last year GBP 32 billion of RWAs within NatWest Markets, and they were able to get that down to GBP 27 billion. So I think we are confident that what the team is doing, Robert and his management team there are doing a good job and working very closely with growth rate in terms of -- in the commercial business. And as I mentioned, we have particularly strong growth in the ESG side of the business, which is really encouraging to see because I think the opportunity to finance the transition to a low-carbon economy is a particularly important area of growth going forward. So I think good job and doing very well. I think given the progress that has been made and the discipline and focus there, we're more confident today in NatWest Markets' performance, bearing in mind I only announced the refocusing in February last year. And I think the team has done a good job. So I think given that reshapes sort of level of capital and much more focus around product set and customer set, the GBP 800 million to GBP 1 billion revenue is the type of business that this business should be doing. And I think that we would expect that business to positively contribute to group revenue by 2023. So I'm very pleased with the performance and the ongoing work that's happening.

Think about noninterest income more widely. Obviously, it's probably like -- well, it is a line impacted by COVID. You've had, obviously, the high cost of credit review. As we look forward, with markets normalizing, have you given any sense of what the steady state sort of noninterest income could be? Some of your competitors were talking about GBP 300 million to GBP 400 million loss in revenues. Maybe you can address, what kind of recovery can we see in that noninterest income going forward?

Well, I mean, I think we only talked about it in sort of the 3 buckets that will affect in this space. And clearly, the drop in rates will continue to be an ongoing drag in terms of this space and that lower yield curve. Also, the high liquidity levels that we're carrying and we continue to carry, that is -- I think we saw last year, we had an inflow of GBP 62.5 billion of deposits coming into the bank, and those deposit levels remain elevated. So depending on how quickly that alters and what the behavioral dynamics of that, that will continue to be a feature. And then the third element is new mix and pricing. Now certainly, I would expect -- we expect to be able to grow above market, given the strength of our franchises in different areas. And I think there is a question on how quick the recovery would be. I think we will see a rebound in transaction banking fees coming through once the economy opens, if people get back to spending and certainly if we look at the experience in other countries that have gone into very hard lockdown and reopened and [ did get a bounce ], so new mix in pricing. So those are the 3 dynamics that you see coming through there. But certainly, the lower rate drag is a challenge, although clearly, forecast is moving around in terms of what will happen with interest rates going forward.

Okay. So quite a few questions. I realize it's been unfair because this is very sudden, but if I have to summarize it in very simple terms, any thoughts on today's news with respect to the FCA announcement that took place this morning? I realize this is a bit unfair given it's very sudden, but any high-level thoughts on that? We've got 5 questions on that, but maybe some early thoughts?

Of course. Well, as you can imagine, we're very disappointed by the announcement and the FCA that it's commencing criminal proceedings against us. We take this very seriously in terms of the situation, and we've been cooperating with the FCA throughout their investigation into this space, which relates back to a period in 2011. We invested very significantly in systems and controls to prevent money laundering. It's a critical part of the support we provide to, obviously, our customers and communities to keep them safe as well. And we have over 4,000 people across the bank whose sole job is dedicated to detecting and preventing financial crime. And we have invested very significantly over the period from 2010 to 2020 and will continue to do so in the systems and controls and technology to support this. So clearly, it's very disappointing, and we take it very seriously.

Maybe a last question in the interest of time. On the budget, I think one of the -- at least for me, very sort of positive things that came out apart from the stimulus was the commitment to review the banking -- the corporation -- banking corporation, corporate tax surcharge in August to neutralize the corporate tax increase. Beyond the actual measure, would you make of the significance, if we look back the last 10, 12 years, it's been about bank bashing. Now suddenly, you get a much more favorable sort of policy sort of reactions. That's on top of the reduction of the bank levy. Is this going to make your -- the business a lot easier to manage as well? I'm thinking as well of the government trying to be much more sort of pro financial services as we go into Brexit. Maybe some comments on -- high-level comments to finish up there -- on that?

Yes. We clearly welcome that announcement. So we were very pleased with that. And I think it was -- a lot of work has been done in the financial services sector in terms of making sure the sector is robust and able to support the economy. And I think what we demonstrated during this period, as have all the other banks, an ability to support the economy during this period of disruption. And in particular, from my perspective, our strong capital and our strong risk discipline and focus on supporting customers during this period, that we have been able to support, along with the other banks, along with the interventions from the government and the regulator and the fiscal stimulus to support businesses and the economy through this period. And I think that's been a very critical role that the financial services sector has been able to play in a very extraordinary environment. I think we're also now very well positioned in order to be part of helping the economy build back and recover, making sure that those businesses that can survive have capital and liquidity in order to be able to grow. And so the importance of the financial sector and banks like my own in terms of retail and commercial, supporting our customers, making sure our capital is deployed in a disciplined way that gets the economy moving, invest in infrastructure, invest in the transition to the green economy, continues to stand alongside customers and support them across the consumer and the sell-side as well means we're well positioned to do that, too. I think our importance during this period recognizes that banks have a really critical role to play when they're well capitalized, well invested and very customer focused, which is what we are.

I think that's all we have time for. And I don't know if there's any closing remarks. I think we've done a pretty thorough overview, but any closing remarks? Anything you feel strongly about that you want to point out?

No. Look, I think very broad questions and appreciate the time to talk to everyone. I think the one area probably we didn't touch on was the ESG agenda and particularly the climate agenda. I think we made that very firmly part of our strategy of being a purpose-led bank. We think the importance of the transition to a low-carbon economy and the role that banks have to play in financing and funding that transition and ensuring that we can provide the support and tools to our customers to enable them to do that is absolutely critical, and we've seen the strong demanding growth in green financing. We launched our own green mortgage last year on the retail side as well as partnerships with Octopus Energy and CoGo to help consumers as well as a strong ESG financing with the GBP 12 billion next year. So I think that transition to a low-carbon economy and a very purpose-led strategy is going to be even more critically important as we go back and recover well.

All right. Thank you very much. There's a few questions that -- from investors. Unfortunately, we've ran out of time. Do please reach out to NatWest Investor Relations, probably some of the more detailed ones. Thank you very much, Alison. I thought that was incredibly insightful. Thank you.

Thanks for your time. Thank you.