Sale of Certain Branch Assets and Liabilities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Discontinued Operations and Disposal Groups [Abstract]

Sale of Certain Branch Assets and Liabilities

Sale of Certain Branch Assets and Liabilities

In 2021, as part of our Restructuring Plan we announced that we would exit our mass market retail banking business, including our Personal and Advance propositions as well as retail business banking. In conjunction with the execution of this strategy, our Wealth and Personal Banking business segment entered into definitive sale agreements with third parties to sell 90 of our retail branches along with substantially all residential mortgage, unsecured and retail business banking loans and deposits in our branch network not associated with our Premier, Jade and Private Banking customers. As a result, assets and liabilities related to these sale agreements were transferred to held for sale. Income before tax of this disposal group was not material.

In February 2022, we completed the sale of the branch disposal group. As a result, during 2022, we recognized a gain on sale of $113 million, net of transaction costs. Included in the sale was approximately $2,148 million of loans, $45 million of properties and equipment, $16 million of cash, $6,919 million of deposits, $145 million of lease liabilities and $6 million of other liabilities. Certain assets under management associated with our mass market retail banking operations which are managed by an affiliate were also transferred to one of the buyers. In addition, we have rebranded 22 of our retail branches into international wealth centers and the remaining branches not sold or rebranded have been closed.

Mass market retail banking loans not included in the transaction described above were also transferred to held for sale in 2021 as we did not intend to hold these loans for the foreseeable future. These loans have since been sold or transferred back to held for investment. See Note 9, "Loans Held for Sale," for additional details.

Releases of the allowance for credit losses on the loans transferred to held for sale discussed above resulted in a reduction to the provision for credit losses of approximately $101 million ($100 million of which related to consumer loans) during the second quarter of 2021. See Note 8, "Allowance for Credit Losses," for additional details.