“So I think as you look forward, what you should expect is we just get back to work on both parts of that numerator and denominator will grind away at the NII side. And then on the denominator side, we'll have a smaller, more efficient balance sheet as the environment normalizes.”

In context

“cash levels just continue to come back down. And so that's all that's happening. It's a choice on our part to position with cash, and you'll begin to see that drift lower now. Charles Peabody: Okay. And as a follow-up then, would that imply that the average balance sheet or more importantly, RWAs will start to shrink and that would help your capital? I'm just trying to understand the capital... Alastair Borthwick: No, it shouldn't really impact RWAs because most of that is sort of low or zero RWA. What it should impact is, if you look at our net interest yield, that's always a question of numerator and denominator. And when we increased the cash balances, that inflates the denominator for a period of time. So that doesn't hurt NII, but it does inflate your balance sheet just a little bit. So I think as you look forward, what you should expect is we just get back to work on both parts of that numerator and denominator will grind away at the NII side. And then on the denominator side, we'll have a smaller, more efficient balance sheet as the environment normalizes. And in the meantime, it hasn't hurt NII in any way. Charles Peabody: Thank you. Operator: We'll go to Erika Najarian with UBS. Your line is open. Erika Najarian: Hi, good morning. I'm sorry I missed the earlier call. On the net interest income trajectory, Alastair, clearly a big focus for your shareholders. You mentioned when you were responding to Gerard's first question that you narrowed the volatility of net interest income. And I think that investors I'm sure are going to start asking you guys and us about the starting point of $14 billion for NII next year. I guess we're wondering, if the Fed stays higher for longer, doesn't move, how does that impact that $14 billion run rate? Does that $14 billion capture a cumulative deposit beta that would sort of fully reflect what you would exp”