Company: BCS
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form Type: 6-K
Source: 0001654954-25-001446
Chunk: 26

Company: BARCLAYS PLC
Filing Date: 2025-02-13
Form: 6-K
Chunk 26
---
 rate assets.

The structural hedge predominantly covers non-interest-bearing current accounts and the fixed portion of instant access savings accounts as well as equity, which are invested into either floating rate customer assets or balances at central banks, creating an exposure to changes in interest rates. The structural hedge is executed via a portfolio of receive-fixed, pay variable interest rate swaps, with an amortising structure so that a small portion matures and is reinvested each month at prevailing market rates. The pay-floating leg of the interest rate swaps nets down a proportion of the receive-floating income from the customer assets, leaving a receive-fixed income stream from the structural hedge.

The purpose of the structural hedge is to smooth the Group NII through time. The floating leg of the swap will re-price immediately, whereas the fixed rate yield on the portfolio reprices gradually, as a portion of the swap portfolio matures and the roll is re-invested onto new market rates.

When interest rates are higher than our structural hedge yield, the pay-floating rate will typically be higher than our average receive-fixed rate. In this scenario, when viewed in isolation, the structural hedge will be a net drag to Group NII. When floating rates are lower than our structural hedge yield, the hedge in isolation will be a net benefit.

Since the receive-fixed swaps are booked for a specific term, an element of NII is ‘locked in’. The income stabilising feature of the structural hedge provides greater net interest income certainty through the interest rate cycle.

The structural hedge is one component of a larger portfolio of interest rate risk management activities that includes non-structural hedging (e.g. pay-fixed and receive-variable flows for asset hedging), and other offsetting flows. The net risk of these positions is executed externally through interest rate swaps and managed for accounting risk (i.e. income volatility arising from the accounting mismatch of swaps at fair value through profit and loss and underlying hedged items at amortised cost) within the cash flow hedge reserve. Overall the Group has external derivatives designated as cash flow hedges that hedge interest rate risk with a notional £106bn (December 2023: £128bn) which reflects the structural hedge notional of £232bn (December 2023: £246bn) netted with non-structural hedging positions of £127bn (December 2023: £118bn). The majority of these interest rate swaps are cleared with Central Clearing Counterparties and margined daily with an average duration of 3 years.

Gross structural hedge contributions were £4