Mark George Culmer
Management
Thank you, António, and good morning, everyone. Beginning with the P&L on Slide 9. As you heard, we've made significant progress on our strategy, and this is reflected in the group's financial performance. Underlying profitability has more than doubled to GBP 6.2 billion, with profits in our core business improving by GBP 1.5 billion to GBP 7.6 billion while the loss from the non-core reduced by more than half to GBP 1.4 billion. Underlying income of GBP 18.8 billion was up 2% and in line with prior year, excluding SJP, with a stronger contribution from net interest income offsetting a reduction in other income. Cost reduced 5% to GBP 9.6 billion, in line with our guidance, while impairments fell 47% to GBP 3 billion, with a GBP 2.3 billion reduction in non-core and an GBP 0.4 billion reduction in core. Overall, the group made a statutory profit before tax of GBP 415 million compared with a GBP 606 million loss in 2012, mainly driven by the significant improvement in underlying performance. Looking at the core underlying performance by division. Retail had a strong year, with underlying profit up 17%, driven by 5% growth in net interest income and 11% growth -- improvement in impairments. The growth in net interest income was driven by a 15-basis-point improvement in margin due primarily to lower liability pricing and the return to growth of the core loan book in the third quarter. Improvement in credit quality reflects a reduction of almost GBP 1 billion in impaired loans, and Retail's AQR is now just 33 basis points compared to 37 in 2012. Commercial also had a strong year. The focus on disciplined pricing, franchise growth and risk selection driving balance sheet growth, improved profitability and RWA reduction resulted in a 38-basis-point increase in returns on…