Close Brothers Group plc (CBG) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to the presentation of our 2026 first half results and business update. It's great to see a number of you here in person today and thank you to all who have dialled into the webcast too. I will start by giving a brief update and will then hand over to Fiona who will cover the results in detail. We will then hold a short Q&A session on the results followed by a break. At 10.15 we will reconvene together with our three divisional chief executives for a more detailed update on the business, strategy and market opportunity for each of our divisions and also share some further detail with you on our current transformation and cost programme. There will be plenty of time for additional questions at the end of the business update. Before we get into the details of the half-year results, I'd like to address the publication of a research report yesterday by Viceroy Research. Close Brothers strongly disagrees with the report, which relates to the company's approach to provisioning in respect of motor finance commissions and resulting impact on its capital position. Our provisioning approach in relation to this matter is in accordance with UK adopted international accounting standards and follows a robust governance process. It has now been a year since I took on the role as Group Chief Executive. While this year has not been easy, I look back on it with immense pride in the progress made by the organisation. We have delivered on our capital actions and substantially strengthened our capital position. Through the Supreme Court, we successfully overturned the Court of Appeals judgment in respect of the Hopcraft case. We have addressed legacy issues, simplified the group and repositioned the business for growth. We delivered initial 25 million of annualiz...