Chief Executive, Paul Thwaite, commented:
“NatWest Group delivered another strong performance in the third quarter of 2025, underpinned by healthy levels of customer activity and the continued support we provide to them. This is driving positive momentum across our three businesses, with continued lending growth and deposits remaining stable.
With our strategic focus on growth, NatWest Group’s impact can be felt right across the economy, as we help people get on the housing ladder, save and invest for the future and grow their businesses – from innovative start-ups and vital mid-market firms to the largest multinationals responsible for critical infrastructure projects. We are also becoming a much simpler bank, with tight control of costs supporting our digital transformation that is enabling us to anticipate and meet the changing needs of customers at pace.
As a result of our consistent delivery and capital generation, we have upgraded our income and returns guidance for 2025 and are well placed to support our customers, invest for the future and deliver returns to our shareholders.”
Growth in all of our customer businesses
We have delivered a strong financial performance in the quarter, with income and lending growth across all of our businesses demonstrating our broad-based support for our customers.
- Total income excluding notable items was up £0.2 billion to £4.2 billion in the quarter, driving an attributable profit of £1.6 billion and a Return on Tangible Equity (RoTE) of 22.3%.
- In the third quarter net loans to customers excluding central items were up by £4.4 billion as we met customer needs while deploying capital where returns were attractive.
- Deposits remained broadly stable across each of the businesses, with a small overall decrease in the quarter of £1.1 billion in customer deposits excluding central items. We continue to maintain a strong loan:deposit ratio (excl. repos and reverse repos) up 2% in the quarter to 88%, and a strong liquidity position with an average Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) of 148%.
- Assets under management and administration (AUMA) grew strongly in the quarter, up by 8.1% to £56.0 billion assisted by strong client net inflows.
Simplification continues to drive efficiency
We continued to make good progress on becoming a simpler bank, delivering efficiencies from our investment programmes and driving efficiency in the business which resulted in a 5% improvement in our year to date cost:income (excl. litigation and conduct) ratio of 47.8%, compared with 52.8% in the same period of 2024.
We are pleased with progress towards our objective of simplifying the way we operate, becoming a more agile and technology driven bank.
Active balance sheet management creates capacity for growth
We continued to actively manage our balance sheet and risk, delivering a £2.2 billion benefit from RWA management actions as we created capacity for growth.
Capital generation pre-distributions was 101 basis points in the quarter.
Our Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 14.2% was up c.60 basis points compared with Q4 2024 and c.60 basis points higher than Q2 2025. TNAV per share in Q3 2025 increased by 11 pence to 362 pence.
Outlook(1)
We will introduce guidance for 2026 and new targets for 2028 with our Full Year 2025 results on 13 February 2026.
The following statements are based on our current expectations for interest rates and economic conditions. We will monitor and react to market conditions and refine our internal forecasts as the economic position evolves.
We now expect income excluding notable items to be around £16.3 billion for 2025 and to achieve a Return on Tangible Equity of greater than 18.0%.
Except for this strengthened guidance, we reaffirm the outlook provided in our H1 2025 Interim Results.
(1) The guidance, targets, expectations and trends discussed in this section represent NatWest Group plc management’s current expectations and are subject to change, including as a result of the factors described in the NatWest Group plc Risk Factors in the 2024 Annual Report and Accounts and Form 20-F and the Summary Risk Factors in the NatWest Group plc 2025 Interim Results announcement. These statements constitute forward-looking statements. Refer to Forward-looking statements in this announcement.