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Purpose and strategy

Our strategy is focused on supporting the needs of our customers, colleagues and communities, whilst delivering sustainable returns and creating value for our shareholders.

Our purpose

Helping Britain Prosper

We do this by creating a more sustainable and inclusive future for people and business, shaping finance as a force for good.

Our strategy

We have three strategic priorities which will enable us to deliver our vision of being the UK customer-focused digital leader and integrated financial services provider, capitalising on new opportunities, at scale.

Our strategy

  • Strengthen cost and capital efficiency 

    As we invest to grow and diversify our revenue, it is essential to maintain our disciplined cost and capital management approach.

    We will also look to further improve capital efficiency as we maintain our strong balance sheet with a disciplined risk approach, pursuing growth in capital-lite, fee generating businesses and generating capital.

    How this is Helping Britain Prosper

    Optimising balance sheet to offset regulatory capital headwinds, helping customers and clients become more resilient, supporting customers, colleagues and communities through challenging times, minimising our carbon footprint and reducing our sustainability related risks all help us achieve a disciplined approach to cost and capital management and strengthen our balance sheet.

    Progress in 2024

    • 36.2% reduction in our energy consumption from our own operations from a 2018.
    • Strong capital generation.
    • 100,000 small businesses, charities and clubs welcomed as new banking customers.

  • Maximise the potential of people, technology and data

    Delivering our strategy requires the Group to accelerate the intensity with which we use digital technologies and data to support customers. Our colleagues’ expertise and skills are instrumental to our success.

    How this is Helping Britain Prosper

    We are investing in our people, digital technologies and data to enable us to deliver our strategy, thereby delivering for our customers.

    Progress in 2024

    • We continued to progressively transform or improve our technology stack, reducing our legacy technology applications by 17.5% through decommissioning and automation since 2021.
    • Recruited over 4,000 new hires in technology and data roles to drive growth and efficiency since 2021. 
    • 40.4% of our senior manager roles were held by women.

Drive revenue growth and diversification

Growth is a core focus of our strategy. We have prioritised opportunities across each of our businesses to ensure we generate value in the near term as well as creating new revenue streams which deliver over the longer term.

How this is Helping Britain Prosper

Our aim is to create profitable solutions which will help improve access to quality housing across the country, drive regional development, empower customers and businesses to a more prosperous financial future, and support the UK transition to net zero by advancing initiatives that address climate change and protect nature.

Progress in 2024

  • £17.4bn of sustainable finance supported.
  • £2bn new funding supported in the social housing sector.
  • 22.7m digitally active customers (versus 18.3m in 2021).
  • >780k customers improved their credit score using our in-app credit score tool.

Our 2026 strategic commitments

Increased confidence in delivering our 2026 strategic commitments.

>1.5bn
additional revenues from strategic initiatives

<50%
cost:income ratio

>15%
RoTE

>200bps
capital generation

See our latest annual report to read about our strategy in more depth. 
 

Annual report

How we're Helping Britain Prosper

 These are some of the ways that we're delivering on our purpose of Helping Britain Prosper.

 

Access to housing

Help every household in the UK have access to quality and affordable housing, notwithstanding income and tenure.

Supporting the housing market Colleague health and wellbeing

Empowering customers

Empower customers and businesses to a more prosperous financial future.

Financial wellbeing

Supporting regional development and communities

We're committed to supporting the UK's regions and communities, supporting the regeneration of low-income areas, addressing disparities, and fostering investment and growth. 

Regional development

Leading diversity, equity and inclusion

Be the leading UK business for diversity, equity and inclusion supporting our customers, colleagues and communities. 

Diversity and inclusion

Support the transition to Net Zero

Support the UK transition to net zero by advancing initiatives that address climate change and protect nature.

Net zero transition

Our impact

Sustainably managing the value we create for all our stakeholders ensures that we can reshape financial services and help Britain prosper for generations to come.

Customers

>£15bn
of funding provided to first-time buyers.

Colleagues

40.4%
of our senior manager roles were held by women in 2024.

Communities

>2bn
new funding supported in the social housing sector in 2024.

Shareholders

£3.6bn
returned to shareholders for 2024.

Customers

>£10bn

of sustainable finance provided for Commercial Banking customers in 2024.

Colleagues

12.6%

of our senior roles held by Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic colleagues.

Communities

c.£35m

donated to our Charitable Foundations in 2024.

Shareholders

3.17p

ordinary dividend per share price.

See our latest annual report to find out more about how we're Helping Britain Prosper. 
 

Annual report

 

Putting power into the hands of our customers

Charlie Nunn, Group Chief Executive, reflects on the Group's performance in 2024 and looks at what lies ahead in 2025.

Read Charlie's article

Related content

Championing social housing

Enabling people to find safe and sustainable homes is central to our purpose.

Social housing

Sustainability

As the UK’s largest financial services provider, we have an important role to play in creating a more sustainable and inclusive future for people and businesses, by shaping finance as a force for good.

Sustainability

Group overview

We're a leading UK-based financial services group. We provide a wide range of banking and financial services, focused primarily on retail and commercial customers.

About us