Barclays 2012 Annual Report Download - page 19

Europe RBB offers a full range of banking, investment and insurance
products tailored to meet our customers’ financial needs. We provide
services to over 1.5 million retail customers and businesses in Europe.
Within our customer base, we focus on the mass-affluent segment and
offer a differentiated proposition. Our business leverages the expertise
of Barclays other Retail and Business Banking franchises to benefit our
client base as well as to exploit synergies across our non-retail
European businesses.
Our customers
In 2012, we took advantage of the expertise of our other Retail and
Business Banking franchises to better serve customers and made good
progress against our long term vision of making our customers’ lives
much easier. For instance, we simplified some of our most manual
customer processes and launched mobile banking to allow customers
in Spain, Italy and France to access their accounts on the move.
We also introduced a system into our French network that allows
staff to quickly determine a customer’s investment profile and monitor
their portfolios in real time. This system saves time, improves customer
service and enhances our oversight over advisory services.
Our colleague, conduct and citizenship initiatives
We maintained and enhanced our strong control environment by
improving systems and processes, for instance in Iberia where we
introduced a citizenship dimension into our new product approval
process to ensure products are not only compliant but also socially
responsible given our broader commitments.
We also continued our commitment to local communities, with
around 2,000 Europe RBB colleagues contributing to our Make a
Difference Day campaign, taking time out to share their knowledge
and skills and helping support their local communities in what have
been austere times.
Business review
Europe Retail and Business Banking (Europe RBB)
Our 2012 performance
2012 2011 2010
Income (£m) 915 1,226 1,164
Adjusted loss before tax (239) (234) (168)
Adjusted ROE (%) (8.0) (6.0) (1.0)
Loan loss rate (bps) 80 54 71
Loans and advances
to customers (£bn) 40.0 43.6 43.4
Distribution points 1,142 1,228 1,363
Cost: income ratio (%) 92 99 89
Within a macroeconomic, sovereign and regulatory environment
that continued to be challenging, income fell 25% due to the
non-recurrence of gains from disposal of hedging instruments
in 2011 and the run-off of loans, driven by active management.
This was offset by strategic action to reposition the business –
we reduced operating expenses by 31%, 18% when adjusted for
the non-recurrence of 2011 restructuring charges.
To enhance future performance, we also combined our businesses
in Spain and Portugal to promote best practices, take advantage of
synergies and align strategies. Europe RBB also increased deposit
taking and focused asset growth in the mass-affluent segment.
For more detailed financial information
please see pages 197-225
Our priorities for 2013
 Create a smaller but sustainable business by focusing on
mass-affluent customers, reducing headcount, downsizing branch
operations and refocusing on digital solutions for clients.
 Introduce dedicated management to optimise the performance
and accelerate the run-off of our less attractive legacy portfolios.
 Reduce Europe RBB’s cost base through greater sharing of
infrastructure with Barclays other European businesses to better
serve customers.
 Continue to employ technology to streamline processes.
We focus on meeting the banking
and investment needs of mass-affluent
and business customers in Spain,
Portugal, Italy and France.
Contribution to total income
£915m
barclays.com/annualreport Barclays PLC Annual Report 2012 I 17
The strategic report Governance Risk review Financial review Financial statements Risk management Shareholder information