John McFarlane
Management
Good morning. This interim result demonstrates that we continue to make the required progress on earnings, capital and leverage. All businesses demonstrated good performance, although the cards business stood out. We also saw the investment bank put an incredible performance, particularly relative to peers. The continued rundown of non-core was a highlight. It’s actually not until one looks back that we can see how far we’ve come, and I’d congratulate the management team in achieving this. Of course, we all understand that this doesn’t take us where we need to be, and therefore there is a great deal yet to do. I have only been in my role for a very short period, so it’d be premature at this point to be absolutely definitive on the way forward. However, before Tushar takes you through the results himself, I’d like to take the opportunity to give you some early impressions that build on my recent shareholder letter and in particular discuss my three priority areas, which are: strategy, value creation and a strong performance culture. So firstly a few observation about strategy. The key principle is that we should focus on core propositions, that are both significant and financially compelling, answering the questions, what are we good at and where are we good at it. In this respect, if I stand back from the group, I see that we derive virtually all of our profits from three major core markets; the U.K., the U.S. and South Africa. Two of these are fully integrated broad scope propositions, the U.K. and South Africa, and the U.S. is a much more focused proposition with two of the businesses represented; Investment Banking and Barclaycard. It’s self-evident that most of our near-term shareholder value therefore, is likely to be delivered from these markets, given the strength…