Antonio Horta-Osorio
Management
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us this morning. I will cover the key highlights for the year, economic trends and progress against our strategic priorities; and provide an update on our guidance. George will then cover the financial results in detail, after which we will take your questions. Starting with the highlights of the year. We made significant additional strategic and financial progress in 2016, which is made possible by our simple, low-risk, UK-focused multi-brand business model. We have delivered strong financial performance, with statutory profit more than doubling to £4.2 billion, driven by stable underlying profit and a substantial reduction in below-the-line charges in spite of the lower level of interest rates following the referendum. Our capital generation is also strong, and we have delivered around 190 basis points during the year. Our pro forma CET1 ratio stands at 13.80% at the end of 2016, to include the retention of around 80 basis points of capital to cover the impact of the MBNA transaction. We also remain committed to supporting the people, businesses and communities in the UK through our helping Britain prosper plan. And in 2016, we have continued to deliver against our key targets, increasing net lending to SMEs, continuing to be the largest lender to first-time buyers, supporting 121,000 start-ups and helping 10,000 clients to start exporting. We are also a major contributor to UK tax revenues and were ranked as the highest payer of UK tax out of the large 100 businesses in the most recent PwC total tax contribution survey, paying £1.8 billion in 2015, which has increased further in 2016 to £2.3 billion. In December, we announced our intention to acquire MBNA's prime UK credit card business. As our first significant acquisition since the crisis, this transaction represents a milestone in…