Deutsche Bank AG

Thank you all for joining us for our preliminary fourth quarter results call. As usual on our call, our CEO, Christian Saving, will speak first, followed by our Chief Financial Officer, James von Malka. The presentation, as always, is available for download in the Investor Relations section of our website, db.com. Before we get started, let me just remind you that the presentation contains forward-looking statements, which may not develop as we currently expect. We therefore ask you to take notice of the precautionary warning at the end of our materials. With that, let me hand over to Christian.

Thank you, James. A warm welcome from me as well. It's a pleasure to be discussing our fourth quarter and full year 2020 results with you. This is an important milestone in our transformation journey. In July 2019, We said that execution over the first six quarters would be critically important. We hit all our targets and key milestones in 2020 and over the last 18 months, despite the challenges of COVID-19. We are now moving into phase three of our transformation, delivering sustainable profitability. That means growing our businesses while remaining disciplined on costs and capital. Our performance in the fourth quarter and the full year confirms and strengthen this picture. We told you we saw sustainable growth in our investment bank as clients have re-engaged and our strong performance in January further supports this. The private bank and corporate bank have successfully offset the interest rate headwinds they are facing. We delivered 12 consecutive quarters of year-on-year reductions in adjusted costs, excluding transformation charges and bank levies. And despite the challenges we faced, we were profitable on a pre- and post-tax basis in the fourth quarter and the full year. For the full year, at group level, we have reported pre-tax profit of €1 billion and net income of €624 million. The improved profitability in the core bank offset the continuing transformation effects, higher provisions for credit losses, and continued de-risking in the capital release unit. We have also put aside any doubts that we can self-fund our transformation. And while the environment is likely to remain challenging, our strong capital and liquidity ratios position us well to continue to support clients. Let me now go through these items in more detail starting with the delivery of our 2020 milestones on slide two. We hit our 19.5 billion Euro adjusted cost target, a 3.3 billion Euro reduction in two years. This was in part driven by headcount reductions with our workforce down by 8% over this period. We have demonstrated our strong risk management, Provisions for credit losses of 41 basis points of loans are in the middle of the range that we estimated in April at the start of the pandemic. We aimed for a year-end 2020 leverage ratio of 4.5%, and we ended the year at 4.7%. At the investor deep dive, we said we expected a CET1 ratio of around 13% at year-end. In fact... our ratio is stronger at 13.6%. The stronger ratio reflects in part a delay in certain regulatory items and in particular outperformance against our de-risking plans in the capital release unit. The capital release unit ended the year with 34 billion euros of RWA below the 38 billion euro target. We have made good progress against our sustainability targets with over 40 billion euros of financing and investment volumes at year end compared to our 20 billion euro target. Simply put, we have continued to deliver against all our financial targets and milestones in 2020. Delivery against these targets is supported by the ongoing disciplined execution of our strategic agenda as we detail on slide three. In July 2019, we identified the transformation effects that we would take by the end of the 2022, and with 85% of these already behind us, we continue to make progress. Most recently, we signed a multi-year partnership with Google Cloud, which will elevate our IT infrastructure to a more efficient cloud-based environment. We also signed and closed the sale of postbank system, which helps accelerate our cost and workforce reduction. In the private bank, we agreed balances of interest with our employee representatives, which will allow us to further rationalize our head office and operations in Germany. We also extended our insurance partnerships with Talangs and Zurich Insurance which will generate additional fee income. The creation of our German business banking and the corporate bank will drive greater focus on serving our 800,000 small business clients. Overall, we have achieved more than 300 key milestones and over 100% of the cost savings anticipated from our core transformation initiatives in 2020. Being on track, or ahead of our objectives so far gives us the confidence that we will achieve our 2022 goals. Our businesses have also made considerable progress against their strategic objectives, as we show on the next slide. The corporate bank is working to offset interest rate headwinds in several ways, as we discussed with you in December. On deposit repricing, we are well ahead of target. By the end of 2020, we had charging agreements related to accounts with a value of 78 billion euros, up from 68 billion euros in the third quarter. These agreements generated an annualized positive revenue impact of more than 200 million euros. We also grew business volumes. For example, 20% growth in payment volumes with our fintech, e-commerce, and platform clients. and we captured a 4% increase in the Asia-Pacific region. The investment bank grew revenues by 32% in 2020, a very strong performance in both FIC and origination and advisory. In the second half of the year, we have outperformed the industry and the average of our US peers in year-on-year growth terms. Yes, markets have been favorable, but we see our growth to be more than market-driven. We refocused our business around areas of strength, and clients have engaged well with this model. As a result, we saw double-digit year-on-year growth in FIC, and this trend has continued in January. Client re-engagement has also helped underpin the strength in revenue performance in FIC. As we explained at the investor deep dive, we see a substantial portion of investment bank growth as sustainable, even as markets normalize as we expect in 2021. The private bank was also successful in offsetting interest rate headwinds with growth in volumes and fee income, including benefits from repricing initiatives. Combination of higher account fees and other repricing initiatives has added 100 million euros to 2020 revenues. In 2020, we grew net new client loans by 13 billion euros and achieved 16 billion euros of net inflows in investment products, including converting 5 billion euros of deposits. These conversions are part of our strategy to grow fee and commission revenues. In asset management, DWS delivered €30 billion of net inflows in the full year, of which €9 billion were in ESG assets. Assets under management rose to €793 billion at year end, €25 billion higher than pre-crisis levels at the end of 2019. In short, The dynamics in all four core businesses show that our refocused business model is paying off. This execution is increasingly visible in our revenue performance, as you can see on slide five. When we launched our transformation in July 2019, we set out to stabilize, then grow revenues, and that's what we did. We have increased group revenues by over 850 million euros in 2020, as growth in our core businesses more than offset the exit from equities trading. Core bank revenues have increased by 6% to 24.2 billion euros. This puts us close to the plan of 24.4 billion euros that we laid out at the investor deep dive as part of our path to the 8% return on tangible equity target in 2022. As discussed earlier, this growth has principally come from our refocused investment bank, which was able to capitalize on favorable market conditions and to deliver on the strategic transformation of our FIC business. The corporate bank and private bank successfully offset headwinds primarily lower interest rates to keep revenues essentially stable year on year, and we would expect underlying growth to feed through the top line as interest rate headwinds soften, consistent with the current forward curve. Asset management was slightly lower due to the non-recurrence of certain performance fees in 2020. In summary, all our businesses executed on their strategic objectives. Slide six shows the progress we have made in reducing adjusting costs. Excluding transformation charges and bank levies, we have reduced adjusted costs year on year for 12 consecutive quarters. In 2020, we reduced adjusted costs excluding transformation charges and expenses eligible for reimbursement related to prime finance by 9%. This puts us on a good path to our 2022 target of 16.7 billion euros, including targeted investments this year. Discipline execution is becoming increasingly visible in our results, as you can see on slide seven. As I said earlier, the next phase of our transformation is to improve sustainable profitability. That means generating positive operating leverage by growing revenues and at the same time reducing costs. We have generated positive double-digit operating leverage in 2020 at both group and core bank levels. The operating leverage has driven significant improvements in core bank profitability. Adjusted for transformation charges, specific revenue items goodwill impairments as well as restructuring and severance pre-taxed profit in the core bank is up 52% in 2020 to 4.2 billion euros. The improved core bank performance has increasingly offset the negative impact of the wind down of the capital release unit. And over time, more of the core bank's profitability should flow to the group's bottom line as we continue to make progress on our transformation agenda and provisions for credit losses normalize. The strength of our balance sheet at year end, which we discussed on slide eight, also positions us well to further grow our businesses. Our common equity tier one ratio was at 13.6%, flat year on year, and approximately 315 basis points above regulatory requirements. Our liquidity reserves were 243 billion euros. Our liquidity coverage ratio was at 145%, which is equivalent to a buffer of 66 billion euros above requirements. As a result, we can deploy our capital and liquidity strengths to support clients in what is still an uncertain environment. Finally, as we explained both in December and at our risk deep dive in June last year, we have benefited from a high quality loan book and a disciplined risk framework that enabled us to deliver within guidance on provisions for credit losses. Our transformation is fully on track on every key dimension and our performance in 2020 gives us good visibility towards our 2022 targets. Before I hand over to James, let me sum up where we stand after six quarters and our outlook for 2021. Our refocus strategy is clearly paying off. Clients are re-engaging and our employees are motivated. Trust by our clients is at the highest level since 2012. This allows us to navigate well through the operating environment, which we expect to remain challenging and volatile. This also offers opportunities which we will continue to make use of. At the investor deep dive, we highlighted that our business set up positions as well to benefit from the fundamental trends we expect to see in the coming years. These trends include the increase of global financing demand, wealth preservation, increased localization and sustainable financing. And they are already visible in January. Momentum is strong and points to sustainability of revenues. Our focus on cost reduction remains a top priority. Delivery against our cost targets alone will put us close to our 2022 return on tangible equity target as restructuring and transformation costs fall away. For 2021, the cost reduction combined with our planned investments are consistent with our 2022 group adjusted cost target of 16.7 billion euros. Our plans assume provisions for credit losses decline this year compared to 2020. but will remain elevated compared to the pre-COVID-19 periods. We will continue to manage our balance sheet conservatively. Our strong capital and liquidity position us well to meet any challenges. As a result, we feel well placed to achieve our 8% return on tangible equity target in 2022 and capital distribution to shareholders. With that, Let me hand over to James.

Thank you, Christian. Let me start with a summary of our financial performance compared to the prior year on slide 10. As Christian said, we are focused on delivering sustainable profitability by growing revenues and reducing costs. Operating leverage was strong in the fourth quarter at 23% on a reported basis. Revenues increased by 2% and non-interest expenses declined by 21%. principally reflecting lower transformation and restructuring and severance charges. Results in the fourth quarter included a negative impact of 120 million euros related to the sale of post-bank systems. This had a negative 104 million euro impact on revenues and 16 million euros of restructuring and severance charges. Consistent with our comments at the investor deep dive, we believe that this transaction helps to accelerate the decommissioning of our legacy infrastructure and reduces the risk of stranded costs in the long term. Adjusting for specific revenue and cost items, which are detailed on slide 32 of the appendix, operating leverage was 12 percent. On this basis, we grew revenues by 4 percent and reduced costs by 8 percent. Provisions for credit losses were 251 million euros in the quarter, equivalent to 23 basis points of loans. we generated a pre-tax profit of 175 million euros, or 621 million, excluding transformation charges, restructuring and severance, and specific revenue items. The tax benefit of 14 million euros in the quarter was mainly driven by the release of non-tax-deductible litigation provisions and share-based payment-related tax effects due to positive share price movements. Our adjusted core bank return on tangible equity for the fourth quarter was 5.8% and 5.7% for the full year. Tangible book value per share was 23 euros and 19 cents, a 1% decrease. This reduction is driven by negative OCI, mainly due to FX translation effects, partially offset by a lower share count. For the full year, we generated a pre-tax profit of 1 billion euros or 2.2 billion, excluding transformation charges, restructuring and severance, and specific revenue items. Provision for credit losses was 1.8 billion euros for the full year, in line with our expectations at 41 basis points of average loans. The full-year effective tax rate was 39 percent. Now let's turn to page 11 to look at the specific drivers of adjusted cost reductions. In the fourth quarter, we reduced adjusted costs, excluding transformation charges, by 413 million euros, or 8% versus the prior year. Adjusted costs include 81 million of expenses eligible for reimbursement related to prime finance and 207 million euros of transformation charges, which are excluded from our targets. On this basis, adjusted costs were 4.6 billion euros in the fourth quarter and 19.5 billion euros in the full year. We continue to make progress in reducing costs across all major categories while continuing to invest in our IT and controls. Now let's move to slide 12 to discuss our provisions for credit losses. Consistent with our prior guidance, provisions for credit losses remained at more normalized levels in the fourth quarter. Provisions were 251 million euros in the quarter, equivalent to 23 basis points of loans on an annualized basis. The decline for the fourth quarter is driven by releases in COVID-19 related stage one and two provisions, reflecting positive changes in consensus macroeconomic outlook since the third quarter. Stage three provisions declined by 14% in the quarter, but remain more elevated in the private bank and the investment bank. We retained the management overlay we established in the third quarter, given continued uncertainties in the macroeconomic environment. including the provisions taken in the fourth quarter, we ended the period with 4.8 billion euros of allowance for loan losses, equivalent to 111 basis points of loans. Turning to capital on slide 13. As Christian highlighted, our CET1 ratio was 13.6 percent at the end of 2020, above the guidance of 13 percent that we provided at the investor deep dive. Approximately 20 basis points came from lower risk-weighted assets, notably faster-than-anticipated reductions in the capital release unit and slightly slower deployment in the core bank. A further 20 basis points of the outperformance came from a series of numerator benefits, including higher-than-expected net income and higher-than-expected benefits from regulatory changes relating to software intangibles and other items. The balance of 20 basis points came from delays in regulatory inflation, principally the targeted review of internal models, which we expected to conclude in the fourth quarter. €4 billion of RWA inflation related to TRIM is now expected to occur in the first quarter of 2021, which increases our full-year regulatory inflation assumption to approximately €20 billion. Nearly all of this RWA inflation is expected to occur in the first half of 2021, equivalent to approximately 80 basis points of CET1 capital. This takes our pro forma CET1 ratio to approximately 12.8%. With this inflation behind us in the first half of the year, we expect to see a much more moderate impact from regulatory items in the second half of 2021 and for the full year 2022. Our leverage ratio improved by 24 basis points to 4.7%, reflecting the positive regulatory-driven and other capital effects I just described. Our pro forma leverage ratio, exclude including ECB balances, was 4.3%. This puts us well on track to meet our leverage ratio target of 4.5% by year-end 2022, taking into account a further 10 basis points from the transfer of our prime finance business which we will finalize later this year. With that, let's now turn to performance in our businesses, starting with the corporate bank on slide 15. Profit before tax was 561 million euros for the full year. Excluding specific items, transformation charges, and restructuring and severance, the adjusted profit before tax was 714 million euros, with stable quarterly contributions including 211 million euros in Q4. This equates to a 5.8% adjusted post-tax return on tangible equity for the quarter. Excluding specific items and the impact of FX translation, full-year revenues of 5.2 billion euros were flat on 2019. The corporate bank offset interest rate headwinds largely through charging agreements. At year-end, Charging agreements were in place on accounts with approximately 78 billion euros of deposits, generating revenues of more than 200 million euros on an annualized basis. Non-interest expenses declined by 13% for the full year and 24% in the quarter, principally reflecting lower transformation charges and restructuring expenses. Adjusted costs excluding transformation charges declined by 2% for the full year and 6% in the quarter, reflecting cost initiatives headcount reductions, and FX translation benefits. This produced operating leverage of 1% for 2020. Loans were flat year on year on an FX-adjusted basis, while deposits were slightly lower, reflecting management actions to optimize the deposit base. Provisions for credit losses were 73 million euros for the quarter and 366 million for the full year, driven by a small number of idiosyncratic events. we're pleased with the relative performance in the corporate bank in 2020 and the trajectory of our 2022 objectives. Although performance in 2021 will be closer to 2020. Turning to revenues in the fourth quarter on slide 16. Global transaction banking revenues declined by 6% or 3% on an FX adjusted basis. Cash management revenues were essentially flat, excluding the impact of FX translation as interest rate headwinds offset deposit repricing and balance sheet management initiatives. We saw positive underlying momentum in this business, with corporate cash management volumes improving both sequentially and year on year. Trade finance and lending revenues were also essentially flat, excluding FX translation, with solid business performance in lending, particularly in Germany and EMEA. Security services and trust and agency services revenues declined as a result of interest rate reductions in key markets. Commercial banking revenues, excluding the impact of the sale of post-bank systems, increased by 6%, supported by the further rollout of deposit repricing and net movements in episodic items. Turning to the investment bank on slide 17, full-year revenues, excluding specific items, increased by 32%, driven by strong market activity and the benefits of our strategic transformation, as well as strong client engagement. Non-interest expenses declined by 15% in the full year and 19% in the fourth quarter, reflecting lower adjusted costs, reduced restructuring and severance, and lower litigation. Adjusted costs excluding transformation charges declined by 9% in the full year and in the fourth quarter, reflecting lower allocations, disciplined expense management, and FX translation benefits. As a result, the investment bank cost-income ratio declined to 58 percent in 2020, with operating leverage of 41 percent. The investment bank generated a pre-tax profit of 3.2 billion euros in the year and a post-tax return on tangible equity of 10 percent. Loan balances declined, reflecting disciplined risk management across the portfolio. Leverage exposure increased compared to the prior year principally driven by activity in fixed income sales and trading to support clients. Risk-weighted assets were higher year on year, principally due to regulatory inflation. Provisions for credit losses increased in 2020 to 688 million euros, or 89 basis points of average loans, primarily reflecting higher COVID-19-related impairments. Turning to fourth quarter revenue performance, excluding specific items, compared to the prior year period in the investment bank, on slide 18. Revenues excluding specific items and fixed income in sales and trading increased by 21 percent. The investment bank continued to benefit from client re-engagement following our strategic repositioning. Credit trading revenues were significantly higher, driven by strong client engagement and constructive market conditions. Our FX business performed well, reflecting higher volatility and strength in our derivatives businesses. Rates revenues excluding specific items were flat year on year, as the strong performance in Europe was offset by a general reduction of client activity in the US. Emerging market revenues were higher across all three regions, driven by continued improvements in the macro flow business. Financing revenues were essentially flat, excluding the impact of FX translation. Revenues in origination and advisory increased by 52%, the fourth consecutive quarter where our revenue growth has outperformed the fee pool. Importantly, we regained the number one rank in our home market. Growth in debt origination reflected increased activity and market share gains in investment-grade debt. Equity origination revenues were significantly higher, driven by a strong performance in special purpose acquisition company activity. Finally, advisory revenues were also significantly higher, driven by increased activity mainly in EMEA. Turning to the private bank on slide 19, we made substantial progress in 2020 on our objectives, with revenues excluding specific items broadly stable and a continued reduction in costs. The private bank generated a pre-tax loss of 124 million euros in the full year, absorbing approximately 650 million euros of transformation-related effects. Adjusted pre-tax profit was 493 million euros, stable compared to 2019, despite a more challenging market environment. Full-year revenues excluding specific items were flat as we grew volumes and fee income, including benefits from repricing to offset ongoing deposit margin compression and negative impacts from COVID-19. Non-interest expenses declined by 7%, driven by operational improvements as well as higher transformation-related effects and litigation charges that largely offset the goodwill impairment in the prior year. Adjusted costs, excluding transformation charges, declined 6 percent year on year, primarily reflecting ongoing synergies from the German integration and other structural and organizational measures, including workforce reductions, to below 30,000 at year end. Consistent with our previous planning, the cost synergies from the German merger reached 400 million euros for the year. We also agreed balances of interest with our employee representatives, which will allow further rationalization of our head office and operations in Germany. Flat revenues and cost reductions led to operating leverage of 6% in 2020. We achieved the fourth consecutive quarter of net inflows with 16 billion euros in investment products, and we originated net new client loans of 13 billion euros. Provisions for credit losses were 711 million euros, or 31 basis points of loans. The increase year on year mainly reflects impacts from the pandemic, The prior year included higher beneficial impacts from portfolio sales and model recalibrations. For the fourth quarter, revenues excluding specific items were broadly flat, while adjusted costs excluding transformation charges declined by 10%. We now turn to the revenue details on slide 20. Revenues in the private bank in Germany increased by 4% in the quarter, including a negative impact of 88 million euros related to the sale of post-bank systems I highlighted earlier. Growth in lending revenues and higher commission and fee income from investment and insurance products offset negative impacts from deposit margin compression. Business growth continued, with net new client loans of €3 billion and €1 billion net inflows in investment products in the quarter. In the International Private Bank, net revenues increased by 2% on a reported basis and declined by 4%, excluding revenues related to Sal Oppenheim workout activities. Private banking and wealth management revenues, excluding specific items, declined by 2% on an FX-adjusted basis, as the impact of COVID-19 and lower interest rates was partly offset by business growth and relationship manager hiring in prior periods. In personal banking, revenues declined by 3%, mainly reflecting headwinds from continued deposit margin compression and the impact of the pandemic on business activity. The International Private Bank attracted net flows of €2 billion in investment products and granted €1 billion of net new client loans in the quarter. As you will have seen in their results, DWS performed well and had a successful year. To remind you, the asset management segment on page 21 includes certain items that are not part of the DWS standalone financials. Adjusted profit before tax of 586 million euros in the full year increased by 9% as management actions to reduce costs more than offset the reduction in revenues. Revenues declined by 4% versus the prior year, predominantly due to the absence of performance fees for multi-asset and alternatives earned in 2019. Management fees were stable at 2.1 billion euros, as improvements in flows offset the continued industry-wide margin compression. Non-interest expenses declined by 185 million euros, or 11%, with adjusted costs excluding transformation charges down 10%. The reduction in costs was driven by lower variable compensation and ongoing efficiency initiatives, combined with a reduction in certain operating costs due to the reduced travel and marketing activity as a result of the pandemic. Asset management posted operating leverage in 2020 of 5%. Assets under management of 793 billion euros have grown by 25 billion euros in the year, driven by net inflows and positive market performance, which more than offset the negative FX impact. Net inflows were 30 billion euros for 2020, reaching record highs for DWS, including 9 billion euros into ESG products. Net inflows in passive, cash, alternatives, and active equity were partly offset by outflows in other active businesses. With that, let me turn to Corporate & Other on slide 22. Corporate & Other reported a pre-tax loss of 930 million euros in 2020 versus a pre-tax loss of 246 million euros in the prior year. The higher loss was driven by a negative contribution from valuation and timing differences compared to a positive result in the prior year from mark-to-market moves associated with the bank's cross-currency funding arrangements. Corporate and other reported a pre-tax loss of €333 million in the quarter. The performance reflected higher than planned infrastructure costs, principally technology, which have not been charged to the divisions. The results were also impacted by higher funding and liquidity charges, which are also not allocated to the business divisions, as we've discussed in prior calls. Consistent with our prior guidance, we expect these funding costs held in corporate and other to remain at around 250 million euros in 2021. Shareholder expenses, as defined in the OECD transfer pricing guidelines, were around 100 million euros in the fourth quarter and approximately 400 million in the full year and are likely to remain at similar levels in future periods. We can now turn to the capital release unit on slide 23. The capital release unit finished the year by delivering another quarter of sequential reductions in risk-weighted assets, leverage exposure, and costs, outperforming our 2020 targets. Risk-weighted assets decreased to 34 billion euros, 4 billion below our year-end target. We reduced credit and market risk RWAs by 48 percent to 10 billion euros at year-end, with the balance in operational risk. The division decreased leverage exposure by €55 billion, or 43% in 2020, to €72 billion, €8 billion below the year-end guidance. Loss before tax of €2.2 billion improved by €1 billion compared to the prior year, as reductions in costs more than offset the loss of revenues from the exit of equities trading. Non-interest expenses in 2020 declined by 1.5 billion euros, or 43%, reflecting lower adjusted costs as well as lower restructuring and severance and litigation charges. Adjusted costs excluding transformation charges declined by 861 million euros, or 33%, reflecting lower service cost allocations, lower compensation, and lower non-compensation costs. Negative revenues in the capital release unit were 225 million euros in 2020. This was significantly better than the guidance we gave at our 2019 investor deep dive, principally reflecting outperformance against our original de-risking expectations. For 2020, we will continue to execute towards the risk-weighted asset and leverage exposure plans that we laid out in December. We expect risk-weighted assets in 2021 to decrease year-on-year and leverage exposure to be significantly lower. However, compared to the fourth quarter 2020, we expect leverage exposure in the capital release unit to increase in the first half of 2021. This increase reflects an approximate €10 billion allocation of central liquidity reserve, as we outlined at the investor deep dive, plus a further increase from the implementation of the standardized approach for counterparty credit risk. These increases do not impact our 2022 leverage targets. The transition of our prime finance and electronic equities clients and the associated leverage exposure and risk-weighted assets is on track to complete by the end of 2021. Christian talked about the outlook for 2021, which, when combined with the performance in 2020, puts us on a solid path to our 2022 targets. We remain committed to our 8% group return on tangible equity target and our cost reduction trajectory leaves us well positioned to achieve this. Consistent with the targeted investments that Christian discussed, we would not expect cost reductions to follow the same linear path in 2021. These investments, combined with our disciplined focus on costs, put us on a path to reach the 70% cost-to-income ratio and 16.7 billion euros of adjusted costs in 2022. We remain prudent in how we manage our capital and our CET1 target remains greater than 12.5%. And as with 2020, we will aim for our leverage ratio to remain at approximately 4.5%. Before I conclude, we have another important disclosure today. Our head of investor relations, James Rivett, will be moving to another leadership role within finance. He'll be succeeded as head of IR by Ioana Patrinić, a senior member of our debt capital markets team in London. Ioana has been at Deutsche Bank for 11 years and brings a wealth of experience to her new role. She will continue to be based in London and will take up her new responsibilities with immediate effect. I hope you'll all take the opportunity to get to know Ioana in the very near future. James joined the IR team in 2014, and he became head of IR in 2018. In that role, he has steered us through the launch of our transformation strategy, our first ever virtual AGM, and two investor deep dives. not to mention our regular reporting, investor conferences, and many investor meetings. That's an impressive set of achievements, and all the more so in the past year against the backdrop of a global pandemic. James has seen the company through multiple challenges over the last few years, and that's no easy task for an IR officer. And speaking personally, I've depended on his advice more times than I care to admit. Christian and I want to say a huge thank you to James for all his support and guidance. James has forged many good relationships on both buy side and sell side and with many fixed income investors. That includes a lot of you on the call now. I know you'll want to join with us in wishing James every success in his new role. With that, let me hand back to James and we look forward to your questions.