Lloyds Banking Group plc (LLOY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today. I'm delighted to welcome you to our 2026 half-year results and strategy update presentation. Today represents an important milestone as we approach the end of our current five-year plan and announce ambitious new strategy to take us through to the end of 2030. We've got a lot to cover this morning so let me start with a brief overview of the agenda and key messages. I'll begin with a look back on our progress to date. We've successfully executed our 2022 to 26 strategic plan and are on track to deliver our 2026 financial targets. This lays strong foundations for the next phase. William will then cover our first half results that show sustained strength in financial performance. We are today announcing a significant step up in our ordinary dividend with a 30% increase in the interim, alongside a share buyback of £1 billion. We will then shift focus to our new strategic plan, Accelerate 2030, and the financial outlook. I'm hugely excited by this next phase, where we will reimagine customer journeys, increase group connectivity, and deliver a productivity step change, all enabled by pioneering technology. These actions will extend our track record of profitable growth and support long-term, sustainable value creation for shareholders. Following the presentation, we'll have plenty of time for your questions. So let us begin with a look back on our progress, starting on slide four. We are the UK's financial services leader, with competitive advantages that reflect our scale, digital and AI capabilities, and cost and capital focus. These competitive advantages underpin sustainable value creation. Our customer lending and deposit balances today total nearly one trillion pounds, in addition to circa 250 billion pounds...