RBS owner NatWest’s profits top £4.3bn amid wealth and AI push: shares up

The banking giant posted an operating pre-tax profit of £4.3 billion for the six months to the end of June, up 20 per cent on the same period in 2025. This was ahead of the £4.1bn that most analysts had been expecting.

NatWest follows Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group - owner of Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows - in beating City hopes for profit growth over the first half.

Income generated by NatWest jumped by 11 per cent year on year, driven by growth across its retail, commercial and wealth management arms. Meanwhile, it reduced its cost-to-income ratio - meaning the amount it spends on running the business as a percentage of what it generates in income - by 2.8 percentage points year-on-year. This was helped by around £250 million worth of gross cost savings over the first half.

Chief executive Paul Thwaite said that AI “alters how people live and work” and that “there is no doubt that AI is reshaping financial services”.

He added: “The real value of AI comes not from the technology but when it builds stronger relationships, supports productivity and strengthens trust.”

He said the group had “put AI into the hands of our 60,000 staff” and that the technology “creates opportunities to serve our customers better”, such as through fraud protection and the first agentic AI assistant.

Meanwhile, the banking group said its recent acquisition of wealth management firm Evelyn Partners was bearing fruit and was set to improve its financial performance for the year.

Thwaite said he thought that wealth management was a “fast-growing area of the economy and of our bank”.

He added: “I think it’s incredibly important for the country that we have widely available good financial planning and investment advice. I don’t think it reflects well on the country that only 9 per cent of the population get financial advice.

“So when we think about private banking and wealth management, we’re thinking about our retail bank, our mass affluent customers, as well as high net worth customers.”

Shares in NatWest gained almost 4 per cent in Friday morning trade.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at investment platform Interactive Investor, noted: “NatWest has followed the trend seen in the season so far, with a strong second quarter leading to an extremely healthy performance for the half which positions the bank for another year of meaningful progress.

“More broadly, NatWest is now enjoying a new lease of life. Its prodigious cash generation has enabled a generous round of shareholder returns, while it apparently remains on the acquisition trail, even if some questioned the £2.7bn price paid for its recent purchase of Evelyn Partners in the wealth management space.”

Nick Sherrard, managing director of consultancy Label Sessions, added: “In the medium term, the big challenge for NatWest is to prove it can innovate and grow without becoming slower and more complex. Right now, it’s too early to tell if NatWest can execute on that, but it remains a world away from the days of state-ownership.”

RBS owner NatWest clinches £2.7bn deal to buy wealth manager Evelyn Partners