Chief Executive, Paul Thwaite, commented:
“2025 was another strong year for NatWest Group, rooted in the support we provide to people, families and businesses in every nation and region of the UK. We delivered broad-based growth across our three customer businesses, and our positive impact is clear to see; whether making home ownership a reality for more people, helping more customers to save and invest or supporting more businesses to scale and grow.
Our performance reflects the progress we have made against our strategic priorities. Income of £16.4 billion and a Return on Tangible Equity of 19.2% are significantly up on last year, and ahead of guidance, whilst dividends per share increased by 51% compared to 2024.
It is clear our strategy is working, and we are delivering consistently. We are raising our ambition and sharpening our strategic focus, with stretching new targets in place. We must now make the most of the investment we've made to become even more productive, build deeper customer relationships and ensure we are the bank of choice in the areas we want to grow.
Across NatWest Group, we are determined to succeed with our customers as a trusted partner to them and the UK, whilst delivering for our shareholders.”
Growth in all of our customer businesses
- We have delivered a strong financial performance in 2025 with income and balance sheet growth across all of our businesses. We have added around one million new customers in the year, both organically and through the Sainsbury’s Bank transaction, demonstrating our broad-based support for our customers.
- Total income excluding notable items(1) was up £1.8 billion to £16.4 billion in the year supported by deposit margin expansion, as a result of higher customer balances and strong hedge income, increased customer lending, strong AUMA growth and an increase in FX trading revenue. Attributable profit was £5.5 billion with earnings per share of 68.0 pence, up 27% on the prior year, and a Return on Tangible Equity (RoTE) of 19.2%.
- We are growing in ways that build and strengthen customer relationships and improve the sustainability of our earnings. Net loans to customers excluding central items were up by £20.7 billion in the year as we grew our Retail Banking mortgage book and increased Commercial & Institutional balances. Customer deposits excluding central items increased by £10.4 billion with growth across each of the businesses, particularly in Retail Banking savings.
- We continue to maintain a strong loan:deposit ratio, up 3 points in the year to 88%, and liquidity position, with an average Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) of 147%.
- Assets under management and administration (AUMA) grew by 19.6% to £58.5 billion, assisted by strong client net inflows including more than 50,000 new to invest clients.
Simplification continues to drive efficiency
We continued to make good progress on becoming a simpler, more agile and technology driven bank by delivering efficiencies from our investment programmes and digitising more to deliver faster, simpler, and safer customer journeys. We have accelerated AI and data transformation with partnerships with Open AI, AWS and Accenture. Our stable cost base has resulted in a cost:income ratio (excl. litigation and conduct) improvement of 4.8%, to 48.6%, when compared with 2024 and an FTE reduction of c.0.5k in the year.
Active balance sheet management creates capacity for growth
We continued to actively manage our balance sheet and risk, delivering £10.9 billion benefits from RWA management actions as we created capacity for growth.
Capital generation pre-distributions was 252 basis points in the year as we increased our capital velocity.
Our Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 14.0% was up c.40 basis points in the year. TNAV per share increased by 55 pence in the year to 384 pence.
A final dividend of 23.0 pence per share is proposed, bringing the total for the year to 32.5 pence, up 51% compared to 2024.
(1) Refer to the Non-IFRS financial measures appendix for details of notable items.