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Speaker 1: I'm glad to be joined by Charlie Nunn. He is

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Speaker 1: the chief executive officer of Lloyd's Banking Group. Charlie, thank

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Speaker 1: you as always for giving us a little bit of

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Speaker 1: your time on Bloomberg TV. How would you rate the

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Speaker 1: openness actually of investment, both domestically but also globally of

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Speaker 1: money coming into the UK.

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, thanks for having me. It's great

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Speaker 2: to be here at the Global Investment Summer today. Investment

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Speaker 2: in the UK is actually lower than it has been

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Speaker 2: at the moment in time that it has been historically,

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Speaker 2: and given domestically the uncertainty in the economy, we've got

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Speaker 2: a relatively lower level of domestic investment in the moment,

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Speaker 2: which is why I actually think an event like this

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Speaker 2: and a focus on trying to get more investment in

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Speaker 2: business and in the UK is so important.

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Speaker 1: So what's the you know, what does the UK offer

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Speaker 1: to global business? I know they're making a pitch now

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Speaker 1: if you're a global investor, like where do you put

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Speaker 1: your money to work?

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Speaker 2: So, as you know, I'm British, so I'm going to

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Speaker 2: do an unashamed sales pitch as well. But the UK

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Speaker 2: has some of the strongest industries in the world and

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Speaker 2: definitely within Europe. If you think about the tech sector,

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Speaker 2: the life sciences sector, education, the creative arts. Financial services

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Speaker 2: itself is actually the biggest exporter of financial services in

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Speaker 2: the world. We have some fantastic industries underpinning all of that.

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Speaker 2: We have a leadership around a number of the transition

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Speaker 2: to net zero technologies and industries in the world as well.

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Speaker 2: And it's a real source of investment in the UK

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Speaker 2: for the energy transition, wind farms as an example, and housing.

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Speaker 1: So we've seen a lot of investors actually come on

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Speaker 1: this show and say, look, we're worried about the energy

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Speaker 1: transition because the Rishisu Nak, the Prime Ministry, probably took

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Speaker 1: a bit of a U drone to appease certain people

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Speaker 1: in his party. Do you see any lack of investment

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Speaker 1: Gusto for the green position.

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Speaker 2: No, the underlying economics of the energy transition, when you

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Speaker 2: look at the economics of wind power and solar power,

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Speaker 2: the transition that the UK's made as a leadership position

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Speaker 2: away from coal to gas and then now to green energy,

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Speaker 2: that long term trend is really quite secure and green

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Speaker 2: energy is more secure and it's cheaper, and if we

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Speaker 2: continue to invest. I think most businesses, most capital can

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Speaker 2: see that long term investment opportunity.

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Speaker 1: How's productivity holding up in the UK?

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Speaker 2: So, as you know, productivity has been one of the

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Speaker 2: challenges for this economy. It's why at the moment, with

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Speaker 2: the uncertainty we have in the economy, we're really focused

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Speaker 2: on trying to say, is Lloyd's Banking Group, how do

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Speaker 2: we help more investment domestically and internationally for businesses of

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Speaker 2: all sizes. So small businesses, medium sized businesses and the

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Speaker 2: largest international firms need to invest for us to get

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Speaker 2: that productivity over the next one, three, ten years.

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Speaker 1: You're very optimistic about Lloyd's Banking Group. I think you

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Speaker 1: left your guidance for net interest margins, which is a

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Speaker 1: key measure of profitability, even when some anmers first saying, look,

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Speaker 1: we worry about the deposits, we worry about consumers going forward.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Lloyd's Banking Group, as you know, is

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Speaker 2: the largest retail and commercial bank in the UK.

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Speaker 1: We've got about a.

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Speaker 2: Trillion dollars that we invest in the UK. We lend

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Speaker 2: about four hundred and fifty billion pounds to consumers in

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Speaker 2: the UK. Businesses in the UK. So we're managing Lloyds

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Speaker 2: Banking Group very much through cycle. We're halfway through our

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Speaker 2: first stage of our strategy, which we announced in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two, and we're investing four billion pounds in trying

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Speaker 2: to make Lloyd's even more customer centric, more relevant for

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Speaker 2: the future and to get some growth. And we're managing

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Speaker 2: you mentioned net interest margin. We manage our net interest

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Speaker 2: margin to support customers through the cycle. Today we're about

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Speaker 2: just over three hundred basis points. Lloyd's Banking Group was

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Speaker 2: at that in twenty eighteen when interest rates were almost

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Speaker 2: at zero percent, So we manage with that through cycle

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Speaker 2: mindset in supported customers.

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Speaker 1: How confident d are you that you consume that your

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Speaker 1: customers are okay? And what kind of impact would they

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Speaker 1: see from the ATOM statement.

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Speaker 2: So at the moment in time in the UK, it's

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Speaker 2: a very uncertain time and it's difficult for many customers,

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Speaker 2: whether you're an individual or a household dealing with the

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Speaker 2: cost of living, a business, dealing with higher rates, or

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Speaker 2: just the uncertainty about the future. What we've seen is

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Speaker 2: a significant number of the customers in the UK have

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Speaker 2: got real difficult, real uncertainty. At the moment We're focused

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Speaker 2: on these two things. One is for those that are

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Speaker 2: struggling to make ends meet, either individuals or businesses. There

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Speaker 2: are some businesses and individuals really making sure we're there

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Speaker 2: to support them. Our ask has always been please just

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Speaker 2: contact us, because there's so many things we can do

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Speaker 2: to support you. And at the same time trying to

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Speaker 2: build that confidence for investing into the future, to get

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Speaker 2: that focus on business and government investment for productivity, growth

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Speaker 2: and future jobs.

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Speaker 1: But how much distressed do you see out there? And

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Speaker 1: are you surprised that actually the economy has been pretty

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Speaker 1: much resilient, even if a lot of people are struggling.

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Speaker 2: So the story we told earlier in the year, when

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Speaker 2: we talk to let's say households and individuals, about seventy

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Speaker 2: or eighty percent of people are really uncertain and are

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Speaker 2: really nervous about the current environment. Twenty percent of people

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Speaker 2: in the UK are having to make tough choices to

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Speaker 2: make ends meet, and less than one percent can't make

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Speaker 2: ends meet. That's been pretty stable this year. It's getting

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Speaker 2: more challenging for some people and some businesses, but that's

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Speaker 2: been pretty and we've seen some real wage in inflation

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Speaker 2: this year or growth this year. Real wages of it

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Speaker 2: actually increased this year, so we can see some stability.

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Speaker 2: Twenty twenty four is not going to be an easy year.

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Speaker 2: We're not predicting a recovery in GDP growth, and in

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Speaker 2: fact we're predicting as our baseline a slight increase in unemployment.

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Speaker 2: So we know households are going to have a difficult

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Speaker 2: period for the next eighteen months and we're here to

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Speaker 2: support them.

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Speaker 1: What can you tell us about the Telegraph sale?

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Speaker 2: Obviously that's been a process that's been managed independently from me.

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Speaker 2: It's been playing out in the media pretty clearly, so

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Speaker 2: nothing else to add from me on that.

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Speaker 1: There's no do you have an inclination to either say

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Speaker 1: yes or no to one of the offers. We know

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Speaker 1: Red Bird Eye am I.

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Speaker 2: Are in the mix, so there's two things going on

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Speaker 2: that you're aware. The governments obviously will be down to

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Speaker 2: them to decide what investigation or oversight they provide with

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Speaker 2: the sales process. The actual process we have itself is

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Speaker 2: being run independently from my role. You can imagine it'd

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Speaker 2: be very difficult for me to be involved with by that.

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Speaker 2: We have an independent board, we have an independent organization

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Speaker 2: Goldman's running the sales process, so very keen for it's

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Speaker 2: a bit to go ahead. Clearly, I'm absolutely focused on

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Speaker 2: making sure I do the right thing for Lloyd's Banking

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Speaker 2: Group and our shareholders in that context, and obviously let

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Speaker 2: the processes run as they are as they will run, all.

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Speaker 1: Right, Charlie, thank you so much for your time today.

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Speaker 1: That was Charlie and there the Lloyds Banking Group Chief

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Speaker 1: Executive Officer,