Banking sector regulatory capital - 2025 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 31 March 2026

The key points for 2025 Q4:

  • The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio for the UK banking sector has increased by 0.2 percentage points to 15.4% in 2025 Q4.
  • The level of CET1 capital increased by 1.1% on the quarter, from £460 billion to £465 billion.
  • The level of total risk-weighted assets slightly decreased by 0.1% from £3,025 billion to £3,023 billion this quarter.

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

2024 Q4

2025 Q1

2025 Q2

2025 Q3

2025 Q4

One quarter

Four quarters

Ratios (per cent)

Change (percentage points)

Total capital

21.3

20.7

20.5

20.2

20.4

0.2

-0.9

Tier1

18.4

18.0

17.8

17.5

17.7

0.2

-0.7

CET1

16.0

15.6

15.4

15.2

15.4

0.2

-0.6

Values (£ billions)

Change (per cent)

Total capital

626

618

608

611

617

0.9

-1.4

of which: Tier1

541

537

528

531

535

0.9

-1.0

of which: CET1

470

464

458

460

465

1.1

-1.1

of which: Tier2

85

82

79

80

81

1.2

-4.2

Risk-weighted assets

2,941

2,980

2,967

3,025

3,023

-0.1

2.8

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. All three ratios have increased in 2025 Q4.

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 capital, with the small decrease in total RWAs, resulted in an overall increase to the total capital ratio in 2025 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)

2024 Q4

2025 Q1

2025 Q2

2025 Q3

2025 Q4

One quarter

Four quarters

Values (£ billions)

Change (per cent)

Total risk-weighted assets

2,941

2,980

2,967

3,025

3,023

-0.1

2.8

Credit and counterparty risk

2,150

2,166

2,164

2,206

2,197

-0.4

2.2

Market risk

362

381

379

388

374

-3.6

3.4

Operational risk

352

355

346

348

366

5.2

4.0

Credit Valuation Adjustment

63

59

61

62

64

3.6

2.2

Other

14

18

17

21

22

4.3

55.8

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. An increase in operational risk, CVA risk and other risk has been offset by a decrease in market and credit and counterparty risk. This had resulted in an overall decrease of total RWAs in 2025 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) Chart 4 is based on the most current publicly available metrics published by the institutions outlined in Table C at the time this statistical release was issued.

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 is 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 2026

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.