It was a strong year for UK banks in 2021, with the four biggest lenders – HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest – all posting a significant increase in profits compared with the previous year.
HSBC, the UK’s largest bank by Tier 1 capital, saw pre-tax profits rise to $18.9bn in 2021 compared with $8.8bn in 2020. Barclays’ profits rose from £3.3bn to £8.4bn, while Lloyds saw an increase from £1.2bn to £6.9bn of profits over the same period. Meanwhile, NatWest returned to profit last year, posting a pre-tax profit of £4.3bn after recording a pre-tax loss of £400m in 2020.
