NatWest Group (NWG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending December 31, 2022

February 17, 2023 4:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the NatWest Group Annual Results 2022 Management Presentation. Today's presentation will be hosted by Chairman, Howard Davis; CEO, Alison Rose; and CFO, Katie Murray. After the presentation, we will open up for questions. Howard, please go ahead.

Howard Davies

Good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining Alison and Katie and me for our full year 2022 results presentation.

Against a difficult and uncertain backdrop with at times turbulent financial markets, NatWest Group delivered a strong financial performance in the year. We achieved continued growth in our lending and further progressed against our strategy. In addition, the government shareholding fell below 50% for the first time since the financial crisis. They have continued to sell in the market and their stake is now well below 44%.

While the majority stake in itself had no material effect on the way the bank operates, and the government did not and does not interfere in our commercial decisions. It was an important milestone, underlining the progress we have made in recent years. The outlook for this year remains challenging, with a decline in economic activity expected and a further tightening of real incomes, which will inevitably affect spending and borrowing. But our strong financial performance continued capital generation and robust balance sheet mean that we nonetheless look forward with confidence.

Our strong capital position also allowed us to continue lending through the pandemic, while investing to create a simpler and better banking experience for our customers. And delivering on our purpose about which Alison will say more shortly. I'm confident that the bank strategy will ensure we can continue to support all of our stakeholders and to deliver sustainable growth and returns in the years to come.

With that, I'll hand over to Alison, who will take you through our results and our future priorities in more detail.

Alison Rose

Thank you, Howard, and good morning.

I will start with a business overview and our priorities going forward before Katie takes you through the bank's performance for 2022. We will then open it up for questions.

You can see the strength and resilience of our business and the results we are announcing today. In a difficult macroeconomic environment, we remain well-positioned as a result of our strong customer franchise, disciplined risk management, and robust balance sheet as we continue to support customers in order to generate growth.