24 Personal & Business Banking Les Matheson CEO, Personal & Business Banking 38% Contribution to income At the end of December 2014 we had c.3 million active users of our Personal Mobile App in the UK. £ Simple transactions can be done in 11,500 Post Offices across the UK. For further information see pages Personal & Business Banking (PBB) serves individual and mass affluent customers together with small businesses (generally up to £2 million turnover), with more business bankers moving back into branches. PBB comprises two segments, UK Personal & Business Banking, including Williams & Glyn, (UK PBB) and Ulster Bank. Performance overview • PBB recorded an operating profit of £2,056 million, up £2,846 million. • Net interest income increased by £210 million or 4% with strong improvements in deposit margins and volume growth. This was partly offset by lower asset margins linked to the continued change in the mix of loan book towards secured lending and lower mortgage margins. • Operating expenses decreased by £279 million or 5%, reflecting lower restructuring and litigation and conduct costs. • Mortgage balances increased by £2.4 billion or 2%, to £121 billion driven by strong performance as advisor capacity increased. Building a better bank that serves customers well The strategic goal of PBB is to become the number one personal and business bank for customer service, trust and advocacy in the UK. Following completion of a strategic review, Ulster Bank was confirmed as a core part of RBS, offering a good strategic fit with RBS’s retail and commercial strategy. These included: • extending services to the Post Office network. • removing 0% teaser deals from its offering and introducing the new Clear Rate and cash-back credit cards in 2014. RBS became the first of the main high street banks to ensure all of its savers get the same or better deals as new customers. • further developing online and mobile banking services to support the upward trend in digital transaction volumes. Performance highlights 2014 2013 Return on equity (%) 17.5 (5.7) Net interest margin (%) 3.42 3.21 Cost:income ratio (%) 71 78 Net loans and advances to customers (£bn) 149.2 150.8 Customer deposits (£bn) 169.3 166.6 88 91 66.6 81.9 Loan:deposit ratio (%) 129 - 135 Throughout 2014, the business has made steady progress in making banking fairer and simpler for its customers through a number of fair banking initiatives and technology investments. Risk-weighted assets (£bn) Note: RWAs at 31 December 2013 are on Basel 2.5 basis and on the end-point CRR basis at 31 December 2014. Business review Customer Case Study Fairer Banking We’ve made a conscious decision to be different from other banks. In 2014, we made a series of customer commitments which aimed to make banking simpler, fairer and clearer for our customers. In an industry leading move we stopped offering teaser rates to attract new customers and offered our customers the same rates online, through a branch or over the phone. As part of this we became the first bank on the high street to commit to giving all our savers the same rates, including proactively moving our loyal existing customers onto our best rates. We’ve also simplified our products, so it’s easy for our customers to find the right one for their needs – and with all our charges explained on just one page. In March we stopped offering 0% balance transfer credit cards. This type of card was designed to make it easier for customers to repay existing credit card debt, but our research showed that debt tended to increase, rather than reduce over the term. Stopping these cards meant around 100,000 customers transferred to a low, ongoing rate with no chance of being caught out by a big jump in their interest rate down the line. We’re making changes for business customers too – 95% of business lending decisions are now made within five days and gross business lending is up 30% from 2013. Plus, we’ve committed an extra £1 billion to support small businesses with fee-free, fixed rate loans. 25
© Copyright 2024