Final Results - Part 2

Lloyds TSB Group PLC 16 February 2001 Part 2 LLOYDS TSB GROUP PERFORMANCE BY SECTOR UK Retail Financial Services Total profit before tax on a business as usual basis from UK Retail Financial Services, which encompasses UK Retail Banking, Mortgages, and Insurance and Investments, increased by £599 million, or 24 per cent, to £3,129 million from £2,530 million in 1999. UK Retail Banking and Mortgages Total profit before tax from UK Retail Banking and Mortgages rose by £25 million, or 2 per cent, to £1,682 million. Total income increased by 2 per cent and costs increased by 7per cent, largely as a result of e-commerce investment costs and higher marketing costs. Bad debt provisions decreased by £93 million, or 22 per cent, to £332 million largely due to the good economic conditions during 2000, and a one-off benefit of £42 million arising from a change in methodology for retail provisioning to recognise more accurately the amount that the Group expects to recover. 2000 1999 £m £m Net interest income 2,962 2,943 Other income 1,143 1,090 Total income 4,105 4,033 Operating expenses 2,091 1,951 Trading surplus 2,014 2,082 Provisions for bad and doubtful debts 332 425 Profit before tax 1,682 1,657 Profit before tax UK Retail Banking 817 789 Mortgages 865 868 1,682 1,657 Efficiency ratio 50.9% 48.4% Total assets (year-end) £71.3bn £64.3bn Total risk-weighted assets (year-end) £44.0bn £39.7bn Page 16 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP UK Retail Banking (the UK retail businesses of Lloyds TSB, providing banking and financial services to personal and small business customers; private banking; and stockbroking) Pre-tax profit from UK Retail Banking rose by £28 million, or 4 per cent, to £817 million. Total income increased by 2 per cent, costs increased by 7 per cent largely as a result of e- commerce investment costs, and there was a reduction of 19 per cent in bad debt provisions. A significant element of the profitability of the Group's insurance operations is also driven through the relationship we have with our substantial retail customer base. Personal loans and credit card lending increased by 9 per cent since the end of 1999 and balances on current accounts and savings and investment accounts grew by 10 per cent over the same period, supported by the launch of a number of new products. The popularity of the Group's Added Value current accounts continued with Lloyds TSB maintaining its position as a market leader in this area with over 2 million accounts in operation. The Group also continues to maintain market leading positions in many of its core markets, including personal current accounts, savings and business banking. We have continued to develop a number of alternative distribution channels in order to offer a broad range of access points for our customers thereby improving service and enhancing revenue growth. PhoneBank, our telephone banking operation, is one of the largest in Europe with 1.3 million customers. In addition, PhoneBank Express, our leading edge interactive voice recognition system, now has over 700,000 registered users. PhoneBank and PhoneBank Express handled 23.5 million calls during the year. Our supermarket banking operation, branded 'easibank', continues to expand, and we now have 22 branches in ASDA stores or large shopping centres. We have extended our relationship with the Post Office to allow our personal customers to undertake banking transactions in post offices in Scotland, in addition to our existing arrangements in England and Wales. We continue to make substantial progress with our e-commerce strategy. We exceeded our target of 1 million online customers of LloydsTSB.com by the end of 2000, and we now have over 1.2 million customers registered to use our online banking service. LloydsTSB.com is now consistently one of the most visited financial websites in Europe. We successfully launched our standalone internet bank, evolvebank.com, in Spain during November 2000. We have also made substantial progress on a number of initiatives for business customers. The Group has launched success4business.com, an internet portal designed to help small business customers maximise opportunities in e-commerce, and LloydsTSBMarketplace, a trade facilitation web service, that allows suppliers and buyers access to a secure e-enabled environment to conduct business with a wide variety of companies within their specific marketplace. Our new e-procurement system has recently been launched throughout the Group and over 8,000 staff can now make purchases from their desktop PCs, saving substantial time and money as all purchases are made using the Group's preferred suppliers with whom discounts have been negotiated. Page 17 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP UK Retail Banking (continued) On 20 July 2000 the Group announced a mobile banking offer, in association with BT Cellnet, that will provide Lloyds TSB customers with access to the Bank's internet banking service, as well as a range of other online services. We have also started to provide, in association with Telewest, a product information service on digital interactive television, and will launch a banking service in Spring 2001. On 24 July 2000 the Group announced the launch of a £20 million joint venture with antfactory, a leading European e-commerce investment company. The new joint venture, called Valuefactory Ventures, aims to identify, invest in and develop global new economy businesses as standalone, value-creating companies. The focus will be on investment opportunities which can benefit from the resources and capabilities of Lloyds TSB and antfactory. On 15 August 2000 the Group announced the creation of a new payments processing company - Intelligent Processing Solutions Limited (iPSL) - in conjunction with Unisys and Barclays. iPSL, which is 24.5 per cent owned by Lloyds TSB, will handle all the Group's cheque processing activities. With increased levels of electronic banking leading to a decline in the volume of cheques being processed, iPSL provides the economies of scale needed to offset the increasing unit cost of processing cheques. On 13 December 2000 the Group announced that it had agreed to form a joint venture between Goldfish, Centrica's financial services brand, and evolvebank.com, Lloyds TSB's standalone internet banking operation. The joint venture will be known as Goldfish Holdings Ltd. Centrica will have a 70 per cent share of the joint venture and Lloyds TSB will have a 30 per cent share. The joint venture intends to offer a broad range of integrated financial services products from which customers can select to meet their individual needs. evolvebank.com will provide technology and banking expertise, together with Lloyds TSB's track record in bancassurance and regulatory experience. Centrica will bring the Goldfish brand, together with immediate access to 9 million Centrica customers. Business Banking continues to attract a substantial number of new customers and has further consolidated the Group's position as a market leader in the recruitment of start-up businesses. Some 116,000 new business customers chose Lloyds TSB during the year. Revenue growth and profitability has again improved based on a 14 per cent increase in lodgements, a 13 per cent increase in lending and increased sales of insurance, mortgages and investment products. Business Banking has, during 2000, successfully launched four new relationship offers which provide our small business customers with a choice of options regarding the level of business and banking support they require from Lloyds TSB. Following a pilot study in May 2000, full national roll out has commenced and supports our strategy of increasing market share from 19 per cent in 1999 to 23 per cent in 2003. Page 18 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP UK Retail Banking (continued) In our UK wealth management businesses, UK Private Banking had another successful year. Profit before tax increased by 11 per cent to £110 million, from £99 million in 1999. £1.5 billion of new funds were gained during the year and total funds managed and administered now stand at some £12.2 billion. Lloyds TSB Stockbrokers, one of the largest retail stockbrokers in the UK, continued to perform well as high transaction levels were combined with efficiency gains. Pre-tax profit increased to £23 million compared with £21 million last year. A new wealth management strategy, based on providing a new set of products and services for more affluent customers, is now being implemented under a new brand 'Create'. For these customers we will provide tailored independent advice, superior service and a choice of investment options from quality providers. Key elements will be our online share dealing and funds hypermarket, and a new Wealth Management Account that will allow consolidation of all financial products into a single account. The Create offer will be underpinned by access to the comprehensive broking services of Goldman Sachs PrimeAccessT. This service will provide clients with customised proprietary research from Goldman Sachs, international equity dealing and market making, custody and settlement, and access to selected equity capital market offerings managed by Goldman Sachs. Create forms a key part of Lloyds TSB's revenue growth strategy and expects to have around 250,000 clients by the end of 2002. Lloyds TSB currently makes pre-tax profits of some £300 million annually from wealth management in the UK and overseas, and believes that this can be doubled within four years of Create's full market launch this summer. Page 19 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Mortgages (covering the Group's total UK mortgage business through Cheltenham & Gloucester, Lloyds TSB, Lloyds TSB Scotland, Scottish Widows Bank and C&G TeleDirect) 2000 1999 Profit before tax £865m £868m Efficiency ratio 23.9% 22.6% Gross new mortgage lending £11.5bn £10.7bn Market share of gross new mortgage lending 9.6% 9.4% Net new mortgage lending £4.6bn £2.8bn Market share of net new mortgage lending 11.4% 7.4% Mortgages outstanding (year-end) £52.7bn £47.5bn Market share of mortgages outstanding 9.8% 9.5% Intense competition in the mortgage market was evident throughout the year leading, as anticipated, to a lower net interest margin which resulted in pre-tax profit from Mortgages decreasing by £3 million to £865 million, from £868 million in 1999. Profit before tax in the second half of 2000 was £436 million, £7 million, or 2 per cent, higher than in the first half of the year. The efficiency ratio of the Group's total mortgage business was 23.9 per cent compared with 22.6 per cent in 1999. The Group continues to be one of the most efficient mortgage providers in the UK. Against this competitive background, the Group achieved in excess of its natural market share of net new lending. Gross new lending increased by 7 per cent to £11.5 billion, compared with £10.7 billion a year ago, and net new lending was £4.6 billion, significantly higher than £2.8 billion last year. This represented an estimated market share of net new lending of 11.4 per cent, higher than our 9.8 per cent share of mortgages outstanding, and is particularly encouraging given that mortgages are key recruitment products for other retail products and services. C&G continues to benefit from mortgage sales distribution through the Lloyds TSB branch network, the IFA market and from the strength of the C&G brand. Once again the provision of a first class service has been a significant factor with independent financial advisers awarding C&G its sixth consecutive 5-star rating in the 2000 Financial Adviser service awards. Business levels sourced from intermediaries remain strong. A relatively low arrears position and the beneficial effect of house price increases have meant that bad debt provisions remained at a low level. New provisions were offset by releases and recoveries resulting in a net credit of £13 million for the year, compared with a credit of £3 million in 1999. The quality of our mortgage lending remains very satisfactory. Page 20 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Insurance and Investments (the life, pensions and unit trust businesses of Scottish Widows and Abbey Life; general insurance underwriting and broking; and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership) 2000 1999 £m £m Life and pensions Scottish Widows 393 - Lloyds TSB bancassurance 259 234 Abbey Life 164 156 816 390 General insurance 591 461 Operating profit from Insurance* 1,407 851 Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Scottish Widows 10 - Hill Samuel Asset Management 30 22 40 22 Total operating profit* 1,447 873 Short-term fluctuations in investment returns (page 42, note 8) (119) 28 Changes in economic assumptions (page 43, note 9) 127 - Pension provisions (page 23) (100) (102) Stakeholder pension related charge (page 23) (80) - * including normalised investment returns based on long-term rates of investment return and excluding changes in the economic assumptions applied to our long-term assurance business, pension provisions and stakeholder pension related charge. Operating profit, including investment returns based on long- term rates of investment return, from Insurance and Investments increased by 66 per cent to £1,447 million from £873 million, largely as a result of the inclusion, since 3 March 2000, of Scottish Widows within our life and pensions business. Since that date Scottish Widows contributed pre-tax profits of £403 million, before funding costs of £258 million. This compares with normalised pre-tax profits of £349 million in 1999. Profit before tax from our life and pensions business increased by £426 million, or 109 per cent, to £816 million. Weighted sales of life, pensions and unit trusts increased by 40 per cent as the sale, on 1 February 2000, of the new business capability of Abbey Life was offset by the inclusion, from 3 March 2000, of Scottish Widows. Pre-tax profit from general insurance operations, comprising underwriting and broking, rose by £130 million, or 28 per cent, to £591 million, mainly as a result of continued strong revenue growth and an improvement in our claims experience. The Group has maintained its position as a leading distributor of personal lines insurance in the UK. Page 21 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Insurance and Investments (continued) The merger of Scottish Widows Investment Management and Hill Samuel Asset Management was completed on 30 June 2000, and the enlarged asset management operation was launched under a new brand, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. The creation of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, with some £87 billion of funds under management, has enabled the Group to become a leading player in the asset management business. Pre-tax profit from investment management for the year was £40 million, up 82 per cent from £22 million 1999, largely as a result of the inclusion, since 3 March 2000, of the Scottish Widows investment management business. Life and pensions (including unit trusts) 2000 1999 £m £m New business 281 134 Existing business 500 260 Investment earnings 212 38 Life and pensions distribution costs (225) (99) 768 333 Unit trusts 157 138 Unit trust distribution costs (109) (81) 48 57 Operating profit* 816 390 * including 'normalised' investment returns based on long-term rates of investment return (page 42 note 8) Weighted sales of life, pensions and unit trusts increased by 40 per cent to £789.5 million from £565.2 million in 1999 as a result of the inclusion, from 3 March 2000, of Scottish Widows. The withdrawal from sale of mortgage-related endowment policies slowed the sales of regular premium life policies. On a pro forma basis, weighted sales for the combined Lloyds TSB bancassurance and Scottish Widows life, pensions and unit trust businesses were £711.0 million, compared to £713.1 million in 1999. By distribution channel pro forma weighted sales in 2000 were £353.3 million from the branch network, £280.8 million from independent financial advisers and £76.9 million from direct channels, compared with £355.2 million, £296.5 million and £61.4 million respectively in 1999. In the second half of 2000, weighted sales increased by 19 per cent from £318.4 million in the second half of 1999 to £379.8 million. In 2001, we anticipate that our sales growth will exceed overall market growth. Page 22 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Insurance and Investments (continued) From the date of acquisition, Scottish Widows products have been available throughout the Lloyds TSB branch network, as well as via independent financial advisers and directly from Scottish Widows itself. From August 2000, Scottish Widows has successfully been selling term assurance to Cheltenham and Gloucester customers. Scottish Widows maintained its 5-star awards from independent financial advisers in both the Life and Pensions and Investment Provider ratings. This is the fifth consecutive Life and Pensions Provider 5-star award and the fourth consecutive Investment Provider 5-star award. The adequacy of the provision for redress to past purchasers of pension policies has been reviewed in the light of the changes arising from SERPS adjustments, further experience and improved knowledge as to the number and size of compensation claims likely to be paid. The cost of redress is forecast to increase by £100 million and a provision of this amount has been made, bringing the total provision charged for this purpose to £902 million, of which £654 million had been used at 31 December 2000. Stakeholder pensions will be introduced from 6 April 2001, with charges on these new products being limited by Government to a maximum of one per cent per annum. In order not to disadvantage existing pensions customers, charges will be reduced on our existing book. This will have the effect of reducing future cash flows in the Group's embedded value calculation and a one- off charge of £80 million has therefore been made to the 2000 profit and loss account. In 1998, a provision was made within Abbey Life for liabilities under certain unit linked products with guaranteed annuity options written in the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s and at 31 December 2000 this provision was £152 million. We continually review the adequacy of the provision and remain satisfied that no further provision is necessary at this stage. As part of the acquisition of Scottish Widows by the Group, certain measures were taken to protect shareholders from any likely potential exposure to this issue. Scottish Widows has assets to match its liabilities in respect of guaranteed annuity options. The assets are held in such a way that should a change in interest rates cause the liabilities to increase then the assets will also increase to reflect this. Page 23 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Insurance and Investments (continued) 2000 1999 £m £m Total new business premium income and unit trust sales: Regular premiums 158.1 129.4 Single premiums 3,501.4 1,875.7 Unit trusts 1,993.3 1,770.2 Weighted sales (regular + 1/10 single) 789.5 565.2 Weighted sales by distribution channel: Branch network 353.3 355.2 Independent financial advisers 253.0 92.8 Direct 69.5 9.3 Fund management 113.7 107.9 789.5 565.2 Scottish Widows (including bancassurance) Regular premiums: Life - mortgage related 23.6 31.4 - non-mortgage related 19.2 9.8 Pensions 105.2 28.2 Fund management 1.2 - Health 5.6 4.9 Total regular premiums 154.8 74.3 Single premiums: Life 1,196.5 329.6 Annuities 327.1 101.7 Pensions 830.8 79.3 Fund management 1,125.3 1,079.0 Total single premiums 3,479.7 1,589.6 External unit trust sales: Regular payments 90.9 76.7 Single amounts 1,899.1 1,624.5 Total external unit trust sales 1,990.0 1,701.2 Abbey Life* Single premiums 21.7 286.1 Regular premiums 3.3 55.1 External unit trust sales: Regular payments 0.1 2.4 Single amounts 3.2 66.6 Total life funds under management 51,085 26,542 * The Group disposed of the new business capability of Abbey Life on 1 February 2000 Page 24 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Insurance and Investments (continued) General Insurance 2000 1999 £m £m Premium income from underwriting Creditor 126 136 Home 228 203 Health 50 55 Other - 1 Re-insurance premiums (5) (5) 399 390 Commissions from insurance broking Creditor 225 175 Home 34 35 Health 19 21 Other 120 96 398 327 Operating profit* 591 461 * including normalised investment returns based on long-term rates of investment return (page 42, note 8) Operating profit, excluding short-term fluctuations in investment returns, from general insurance operations, comprising underwriting and broking, rose by £130 million, or 28 per cent, to £591 million. Income from creditor insurance increased by 13 per cent, reflecting higher personal and business sector lending. Sales of home insurance policies increased by 10 per cent, with strong growth in both branch network and direct sales. Lloyds TSB is now the leading distributor of household insurance in the UK. Overall new business sales in 2000 were over 2.4 million, 14 per cent higher than in 1999, of which over 900,000 were home insurance policies. The overall increase in sales, together with renewal business, produced a 22 per cent increase in commission income from broking and a 2 per cent increase in earned premium income from underwriting. Investment income, on a normalised basis, increased by 37 per cent to £67 million. The overall claims ratio of 35.1 per cent was lower than in 1999 (42.8 per cent). Claims were £27 million, or 16 per cent, lower at £142 million than in last year. This reflected the favourable impact on our creditor products of good economic conditions throughout the year, partly offset by the adverse weather conditions in the autumn. The Group now has six general insurance products live on interactive television and has full quote and buy functionality on the internet for home, motor and travel insurance. Page 25 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Wholesale Markets (banking, treasury, large value lease finance, long-term agricultural finance, share registration, venture capital, factoring and invoice discounting, and other related services for major UK and multinational companies, banks and financial institutions, and medium-sized UK businesses; and Lloyds UDT) 2000 1999 £m £m Net interest income 900 930 Other income 622 444 Total income 1,522 1,374 Operating expenses 665 564 Trading surplus 857 810 Provisions for bad and doubtful debts 94 75 Amounts written off fixed asset investments 14 7 Profit before tax 749 728 Efficiency ratio 43.7% 41.0% Total assets (year-end) £65.7bn £61.5bn Total risk-weighted assets (year-end) £36.5bn £31.6bn Wholesale Markets pre-tax profit increased by £21 million, or 3 per cent, to £749 million. Provisions for bad and doubtful debts increased by £19 million to £94 million largely as a result of a higher level of provisions in the motor finance businesses and the acquisition of Chartered Trust (page 43, note 7). Total assets increased by 7 per cent and risk-weighted assets grew by 16 per cent reflecting the acquisition of Chartered Trust. The efficiency ratio increased to 43.7 per cent, from 41.0 per cent in 1999, again reflecting the acquisition of Chartered Trust. Our Corporate and Financial Institutions businesses, serving the larger corporate market and financial institutions, achieved record results. Corporate Banking's continuing focus on quality income growth ensured another strong performance. Bad debt provisions remained at a relatively low level. Lloyds TSB Leasing maintained its position as the largest 'big ticket' leasing company in the UK and Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking, serving the commercial middle market, continued to perform well, with revenue increases, tight cost control and lower provisions all contributing to the achievement of record profits for the year. Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance and Alex Lawrie Factors, two of the leading invoice discounting and factoring companies in the UK, expanded their range of specialist products and services and continued to grow their market share. Lloyds TSB Development Capital continued to expand its presence in the venture capital market and achieved record profits in 2000. The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation maintained its position as a market leader in the provision of long-term finance to farmers. Lloyds TSB Registrars had another very successful year with income growing by 9 per cent and profit by 41 per cent to a record £45 million. During the year shareview.co.uk, our unique internet information service for shareholders, was successfully launched. Page 26 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Wholesale Markets (continued) In Treasury Division the more stable interest rate environment, compared with 1999, resulted in lower income from our interest rate management businesses. The Group's activity in the derivatives markets continues to remain focused on straight cash based products. On 1 September 2000, the Group announced that its subsidiary, Lloyds UDT, had acquired Chartered Trust Group Plc and ACL Autolease Holdings Limited, ('Chartered Trust'), the UK consumer finance and contract hire subsidiaries of Standard Chartered Bank, for a cash consideration of £614 million. The acquisition allowed the Group to consolidate its position as market leader in the independent provision of motor finance and become one of the leading contract hire providers in the UK. A restructuring provision of £21 million has been made to cover the costs of integrating Chartered Trust and Lloyds UDT. International Banking (banking and financial services overseas in four main areas: The Americas, New Zealand, Europe and Offshore Banking; and Emerging Markets Debt) 2000 1999 £m £m Net interest income 753 734 Other income 386 378 Total income 1,139 1,112 Operating expenses 589 580 Trading surplus 550 532 Provisions for bad and doubtful debts 49 88 Profit before tax 501 444 Efficiency ratio 51.7% 52.2% Total assets (year-end) £19.2bn £19.4bn Total risk-weighted assets (year-end) £11.9bn £11.6bn International Banking pre-tax profit was £57 million, or 13 per cent, higher at £501 million compared with 1999 and represented 12 per cent of Group pre-tax profit. 4 per cent related to our New Zealand business, 5 per cent to our Europe and offshore banking operations and 3 per cent to Latin America. Profits from New Zealand in local currency terms increased by 21 per cent. International private banking and the Group's offshore banking operations both showed strong improvements over 1999 with an 18 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to £194 million, from £165 million in 1999. Our consumer finance business in Brazil, Losango Consumer Finance, made a pre-tax profit of £41 million, compared with a profit of £31 million in 1999. Page 27 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP International Banking (continued) The Emerging Markets Debt portfolio contributed £104 million, which included a release of provisions of £85 million following the repayment of debt by certain borrowers and some asset sales. This compared with a contribution of £48 million in 1999, which included a release of provisions of £32 million. At the end of December 2000 the Group's provisionable exposure to Emerging Market economies which is included in loans and advances was £1,352 million (December 1999: £1,328 million) against which provisions of £803 million (December 1999: £799 million) were held, giving cover of 59 per cent (December 1999: 60 per cent). Based on secondary market prices, the surplus of market value over net book value of the total Emerging Markets Debt portfolio (including advances, unapplied interest and collateralised bonds held as investments) was more than £800 million (December 1999: £700 million). Central group items (earnings on surplus capital, central costs and other unallocated items) 2000 1999 £m £m Accrual for payment to Lloyds TSB Foundations (34) (31) Earnings on surplus capital, central costs and other unallocated items (99) 150 (133) 119 The four independent Lloyds TSB Foundations support registered charities throughout the UK that enable people, particularly disabled and disadvantaged people, to play a fuller role in society. The Foundations receive 1 per cent of the Group's pre- tax profit, averaged over 3 years, instead of the dividend on their shareholdings. In 2001 they will receive £34 million (2000: £31 million) to distribute to charities, making them in aggregate one of the largest general grant-giving organisations in the UK. The reduction in earnings on surplus capital, central costs and other unallocated items in 2000 reflects the incorporation, for the first time, of the funding cost of the purchase of Scottish Widows. Historically it has been the Group's practice for central income items such as the earnings on surplus group capital and the profit on the sale of investments to be allocated to business units for statutory reporting purposes. To avoid unnecessary volatility in business unit earnings, as a result of decisions at the Group Centre on the build up and use of surplus capital, these central income items will in the future be reported within central group items. The effect on 1999 figures, which have been restated, is an increase in central group items of £168 million offset by a commensurate reduction in business unit earnings. Page 28 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP INCOME Group net interest income Excluding the £258 million funding cost of Scottish Widows, group net interest income increased by £62 million, or 1 per cent, to £4,845 million, notwithstanding a reduction of £200 million caused by a 17 basis point reduction in the underlying net interest margin. This £200 million reduction in net interest income was more than offset by higher volumes of both customer lending and deposits. Average interest-earning assets increased by 6 per cent to £131 billion. There was further growth in mortgages and other customer lending in the UK. The net interest margin decreased to 3.49 per cent, a reduction of 37 basis points. The impact of the funding cost of Scottish Widows represented 20 basis points of this 37 basis point reduction, with the residual 17 basis point decrease in the margin reflecting the increasingly competitive operating environment and a lower international net interest margin. Excluding the funding cost of Scottish Widows, the group net interest margin in the second half of 2000 was 3.67 per cent, compared with 3.70 per cent in the first half of the year. 2000 1999 £m £m Net interest income 4,587 4,783 Average balances Short-term liquid assets 2,060 1,985 Loans and advances 123,317 116,965 Debt securities 5,992 5,038 Total interest-earning assets 131,369 123,988 Financed by: Interest-bearing liabilities 118,348 107,631 Interest-free liabilities 13,021 16,357 Average rates % % Gross yield on interest-earning assets 8.41 8.43 Cost of interest-bearing liabilities 5.46 5.27 Interest spread 2.95 3.16 Contribution of interest-free liabilities 0.54 0.70 Net interest margin 3.49 3.86 Net interest margin, excluding funding cost of Scottish Widows 3.69 3.86 Note: Payments made under cash gift and discount mortgage schemes are amortised over the early redemption charge period, being a maximum of 5 years. If these incentives had been fully written off as incurred, group and domestic net interest income would have been £65 million lower in 2000 (1999: £11 million lower). The deferred element of the expenditure amounting to £242 million at 31 December 2000 (31 December 1999: £176 million) is included within prepayments and accrued income in the balance sheet. Page 29 of 45 LLOYDS TSB GROUP Domestic net interest income Domestic net interest income decreased by £198 million, or 5 per cent, to £3,956 million, reflecting the £258 million funding cost of Scottish Widows, and this represents 86 per cent of total group net interest income. Average interest-earning assets increased by 6 per cent to £111 billion. There was further growth in mortgages and other customer lending. The net interest margin decreased by 40 basis points to 3.58 per cent, again partly reflecting the funding cost of Scottish Widows, which caused a reduction of 23 basis points. In addition, the increasingly competitive operating environment, particularly for retail lending, and the higher cost of deposit products in a higher average interest rate environment caused an underlying reduction of 17 basis points in the net interest margin. During the year the Group had strong growth in a number of finer margin products, particularly mortgages and preferentially priced savings accounts. Excluding the funding cost of Scottish Widows, the domestic net interest margin in the second half of 2000 was 3.80 per cent, compared with 3.83 per cent in the first half of the year. 2000 1999 £m £m Net interest income 3,956 4,154 Average balances Short-term liquid assets 836 985 Loans and advances 105,856 99,985 Debt securities 3,882 3,272 Total interest-earning assets 110,574 104,242 Financed by: Interest-bearing liabilities 99,220 89,515 Interest-free liabilities 11,354 14,727 Average rates % % Gross yield on interest-earning assets 8.07 7.69 Cost of interest-bearing liabilities 5.01 4.31 Interest spread 3.06 3.38 Contribution of interest-free liabilities 0.52 0.60 Net interest margin 3.58 3.98 Net interest margin, excluding funding cost of Scottish Widows 3.81 3.98 Page 30 of 45 MORE TO FOLLOW
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