Banking sector regulatory capital - 2024 Q4

This quarterly statistical release shows levels of capital and risk-weighted assets for the UK banking sector. It includes breakdowns of the movements in different tiers of capital and risk exposure types, and overall capital ratios.
Published on 28 March 2025

The key points for 2024 Q4:

  • The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio for the UK banking sector has decreased slightly by 0.1 percentage point to 15.9% in 2024 Q4, and is broadly consistent with previous quarters.
  • The level of CET1 capital increased by 1.7% on the quarter, from £460bn to £468bn.
  • The level of total risk-weighted assets increased by 2.2% from £2,876bn to £2,940bn this quarter.

Table A: Capital ratios and levels of capital and risk-weighted assets in the UK banking sector (a)

2023 Q4

2024 Q1

2024 Q2

2024 Q3

2024 Q4

One quarter

Four quarters

Ratios (per cent)

Change (percentage points)

Total capital

21.3

21.0

21.2

21.2

21.2

0.0

-0.1

Tier1

18.4

18.1

18.3

18.4

18.3

-0.1

-0.1

CET1

16.0

15.8

15.9

16.0

15.9

-0.1

-0.1

Values (£ billions)

Change (per cent)

Total capital

616

623

624

609

623

2.3

1.1

of which: Tier1

532

537

539

528

538

1.9

1.1

of which: CET1

463

467

469

460

468

1.7

1.1

of which: Tier2

84

85

84

81

85

4.9

1.2

Risk-weighted assets

2,897

2,965

2,943

2,876

2,940

2.2

1.5

Footnotes

  • (a) Figures throughout this document may not correspond exactly due to rounding.

Chart 1: Capital ratios for the UK banking sector

Lines represent the total capital ratio, Tier 1 and CET 1 ratio of the UK banking sector over the past 18 quarters. The CET1 and Tier 1 ratio have slightly decreased, while the total capital ratio has remained stable.

Chart 2: Contributions to quarterly change in total capital ratio (a) (b)

Bars represent contributions made by the quarterly percentage changes in the levels of risk-weighted assets (RWAs), tier 1 and tier 2 capital on the quarterly percentage change in total capital ratio over the past six quarters. The impact of the increase in Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital was offset by the increase in total RWAs, which has resulted in no change to the total capital ratio in 2024 Q4.

Footnotes

  • (a) See Further details about these data for information on the calculation of these contributions.
  • (b) Data for all charts has been sourced from the banking sector regulatory capital data tables.

Table B: Risk-weighted assets by risk type (£ billions) (a)

names

2023 Q4

2024 Q1

2024 Q2

2024 Q3

2024 Q4

One quarter

Four quarters

Values (£ billions)

Change (per cent)

Total risk-weighted assets

2,897

2,965

2,943

2,876

2,940

2.2

1.5

Credit and counterparty risk

2,124

2,163

2,150

2,108

2,150

2.0

1.2

Market risk

366

380

384

366

363

-0.8

-0.8

Operational risk

325

335

334

328

351

7.0

8.0

Credit Valuation Adjustment

71

69

63

61

63

3.3

-11.3

Other

12

17

12

13

14

7.7

16.7

Footnotes

  • (a) The categories of risk-weighted assets used are as defined in the reporting templates in the annexes to the Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on Supervisory Reporting (Regulation (EU) No 573/2013).

Chart 3: Changes in risk-weighted assets by risk type

Bars represent the breakdown of quarterly changes in the levels of risk-weighted assets (RWAs) by type over the past six quarters. There has been an increase across most of the published risk types within RWAs, except for market risk which has slightly decreased. This had resulted in an overall increase of total RWAs in 2024 Q4.

Comparison of capital ratios with other publications

Capital ratios for the UK banking sector are published by the Bank of England (BoE) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Chart 4 shows a comparison of published capital ratios for the UK and the details of their differences are explained below. Table C provides descriptions of the underlying datasets and links to their definitions.

Chart 4: Comparison of published capital ratios for the UK (a)

Chart shows capital ratios for the UK banking sector published by different institutions. These ratios are similar but not identical due to differences in firm coverage and data revisions.

Footnotes

  • (a) From 1 January 2022, regulatory changes, designed to strengthen the capital framework, were introduced which had an impact on firms’ capital and risk-weighted assets. This included more prudent approaches to the calculation of risk-weighted assets and the treatment of intangible software assets for regulatory capital. These changes are described in more detail in the December 2021 Financial Stability Report.

The effects of the differences in datasets and methodologies can be generalised as follows:

  • Firm coverage – the BoE and the IMF publish capital ratios that represent averages of the total UK banking sector. While they all use the same data, the IMF publications are updated with a lag. This means that the latest quarterly figures are not available at the time of this publication and may include minor differences because this release’s chart is not using the latest vintage at this point of publication. The Financial Policy Committee’s (FPC) indicatorsfootnote [1] cover major UK banksfootnote [2] only, rather than the total UK banking sector, and this generally has a downward effect on the ratio.
  • Use of transitional or endpoint capitalfootnote [3] – the use of endpoint capital will tend to have a slight downward effect on ratios, compared to those using transitional capital.
  • Timing – both timeliness and frequency vary across datasets. The banking sector regulatory capital statistical release and FPC indicators are the timeliest.

Table C: Description of different published capital ratios for the UK

Publishing institution

Dataset

Firm coverage

Transitional or endpoint capital

Averaging method

Bank of England

Banking sector regulatory capital

Total UK banking sector

Transitional

Weighted mean

International Monetary Fund

Financial soundness indicators

Total UK banking sector

Transitional

Weighted mean

Bank of England

FPC indicators

Major UK Banks

End-point(a)

Weighted mean

Footnotes

  • (a) From 2018, Basel III CET 1 and Tier 1 capital ratios reflect IFRS 9 transitional arrangements.

Next release – 30 June 2025

Copyright guidance and the related UK Open Government Licence.

  1. In July 2023 the FPC added the CET1 ratio as one of its Core indicators, alongside the Tier 1 ratio.

  2. The group currently includes Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander UK, and Standard Chartered. Note: Virgin Money were included for the periods from 2020 Q4 to 2024 Q3.

  3. See explanatory notes for more detail.