Earnings Sentiment

Sentiment Analysis of the earnings transcript to help figure out if there are any bullish or bearish sentiments that could be gathered from it. We're doing ML and AI based analysis on the earnings call to get some more insights.

Please consider a small donation if you think this website provides you with relevant information  

    

Sentiment Distribution

   

Earnings Call Transcript Word Cloud

     

Bullish Statements during Earnings call

Statement
The book is performing better than we'd anticipated
I hope you'll agree we've laid out a good strong performance for 2023
We have delivered strong returns across our 3 businesses in both 2022 and 2023
Retail Banking continued to be our highest-returning business in 2023 with good income growth
I noted on Slide 21, you still get through-the-cycle figures, 20 bps to 30 bps; and you obviously expect to come in better than that this year
And that's why we have confidence in the income growth over the medium-term, as we see those deposits stabilize
Naturally, I'm delighted to have been confirmed as the CEO of NatWest Group today and look forward to driving the very best performance we can for the benefit of our customers and shareholders
Our Commercial & Institutional business delivered the strongest year-on-year improvement, growing income by 16% and operating profit by 27%
Our business diversification enabled us to deliver a strong group performance whilst responding to a broad range of customer behaviors and market dynamics
This gives us an opportunity to be a trusted partner to customers at a time of ongoing change
I'm very keen that we have good cost discipline
I think we've proven over a number of years in both businesses that we've successfully grown the asset side of the business
So our TNAV is growing very well, very strongly this year
I think we've got a good track record over a number of years delivering on that line
We're also making big market share gains in areas like startups and youth, where we're now over 20%
This customer activity underpins our strong financial performance
We believe they're businesses and asset classes that offer good upside over the course of the next couple of years
Our performance naturally reflects the rates environment in 2023, but our strong capital and risk management made an important contribution too
Non-interest income excluding notable items grew 2.5%, supported by increased customer activity and higher income from the markets business
On the asset side, our personal lending is almost secure and our corporate book is well diversified
In the kind of commercial and institutional business, we've seen some good growth around our project finance, infrastructure and funds business
This balance sheet strength and well-diversified funding underpins our ability to continue supporting customers through the economic cycle
We are pleased to have delivered another year of balanced lending growth across the group
We've also made good progress on the unsecured side in retail
Business confidence is also improving, and our net lending to large U.K
As you see that deposit stabilization and then the mortgage stabilization as well what -- and then you start to see the structural hedge kind of come through, we expect the second half income of 2024 to be better than the first half
Household and corporate balance sheets remained strong and the resilience of our customers is evident from our low level of impairments in 2023
During the first half, we delivered strong mortgage growth, whereas in the second half, we delivered strong corporate loan growth as we took a disciplined approach to capital allocation in a competitive and dynamic market
We believe the strength from our customer franchise positions us well for 2024 and beyond
We have leading market positions and we also have a track record of growing share in attractive segments
       

Bearish Statements during earnings call

Statement
And then finally, on the asset side, we experienced significant mortgage margin pressure in 2023 as our mortgage customers refinanced onto higher rates at a tighter margin
We also anticipate a slight deterioration in levels of employment in both '24 and '25
This was slightly lower than our expectations as a result of active management in December yet up from 15% at the end of the third quarter and 6% at the start of the year
And there's clearly some downside versus consensus, but I guess, to push back against that it doesn't really feel that surprising to see you come out with a revenue number that's that low
Income excluding all notable items was GBP 3.4 billion, down 2%
So loan impairment, 15 bps for '23, obviously below our through-the-cycle range
As expected, the rate of margin compression was slower than in the third quarter
However, inflation has fallen and market expectations for interest rates have come down
In my first year, we declared a loss of over GBP 2 billion
Bank net interest margin reduced by 8 basis points to 286 which includes a 3 basis point drag from notable items
Is it a demand problem or a supply problem? Is that the key issue in terms of a sort of reasonably lackluster -- because I guess the loan growth and the economic performance often go together
However, this was offset by higher costs and an increase in impairments, which impacted the return on equity, reducing it to 23.8%
Non-interest income fell 6.9%, reflecting seasonally lower trading and other income
I think, if you looked at what happened in rates just in the first part of this year and if I was to cut the numbers now, you'd actually see it reverse a little bit in the other direction, but overall with our rate assumptions, we'll definitely see that continue to come down
You've seen the guide for '24, below 20
However, overall demand from personal and business customers is currently muted
However, this flow share reduced to 10.5% in the fourth quarter, as we managed the balance sheet in a smaller, more competitive market
And I presume you're assuming within the guidance some negative pricing lag effects
This headwind continues to moderate
And I'm not going to share with you -- or it just now, but we have worked on a 60% pass-through of that rate, taking in mind as well that there is a delay in passing through because of some of the regulatory requirements so the speed of notification that you need to give to our customer base
   

Please consider a small donation if you think this website provides you with relevant information