NatWest Group‘s NatWest H1 2026 profit rose 20 per cent to £4.3 billion, the bank disclosed on Friday, beating analyst estimates of £4bn and prompting a second consecutive upgrade to its full-year income target.
The FTSE 100 lender now expects total income of £17.9bn for 2026, up from a prior guidance range of £17.2bn to £17.6bn. The revised figure includes a £275m tailwind from the acquisition of wealth manager Evelyn Partners.
NatWest H1 2026 Profit: What the Numbers Show
Total income for the six months ended 30 June 2026 rose 11 per cent to £8.7bn. Net interest income led the way, up nearly 13 per cent to £6.9bn, driven by deposit growth across retail and wealth operations.
The bank’s NatWest investor results centre records the figure as operating profit of £4,318 million; the snippet refers to it as pre-tax profit of £4.3bn. The company’s own results label is operating profit.
Net interest margin widened 20 basis points year on year to 2.48 per cent. Costs rose 2.6 per cent to £4.1bn, though the cost-to-income ratio fell to 46 per cent from 48.8 per cent a year earlier.
Attributable profit reached £3.0bn, with return on tangible equity at 19.7 per cent, according to the H1 2026 results. Earnings per share came in at 38.1 pence, up 23.3 per cent on the prior year.
The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio stood at 13.2 per cent at the half-year, with an average Liquidity Coverage Ratio of 140 per cent. Cost of risk was 19 basis points, which management described as low and stable.
The bank’s expected credit loss charge rose to £423m from £382m in the same period last year, according to the NatWest Interim Results 2026 RNS filing on Investegate. Amounts written off totalled £487m, up from £192m in H1 2025.
Dividend Raised and Buyback Brought Forward
NatWest raised its interim dividend 26 per cent to 12.0p per share, equivalent to a £955m payout. The prior year interim dividend was 9.5p per share, paid in September 2025, according to the NatWest ordinary share dividends page. The 2026 interim dividend will be paid on 18 September 2026 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 14 August 2026, with an ex-dividend date of 13 August 2026.
The bank also said it would consider a share buyback from its full-year 2026 earnings release, six months earlier than previously planned. When it announced the Evelyn Partners acquisition in February, NatWest simultaneously disclosed a £750m share buyback, per StockTitan’s reporting of the NWG Form 6-K filing dated 9 February 2026.
Evelyn Partners Acquisition Completes, Wealth Division Grows
NatWest completed its £2.7bn acquisition of Evelyn Partners on 30 June 2026, adding £69bn of assets under management and bringing total group assets to around £127bn, making it the largest bank-owned wealth manager in the UK.
The Evelyn deal was struck at a 9.7 times multiple on Evelyn’s latest £179m in earnings. Wealth income in the first half rose more than 10 per cent to £595m.
NatWest’s Private Banking and Wealth Management division recorded net AUM inflows of £2.0bn in H1 2026, equivalent to 9.2 per cent of opening balances on an annualised basis. Over 45,000 customers across the group invested for the first time in the period, up more than 60 per cent compared with H1 2025, the H1 2026 results showed.
UK Banks Face Political Pressure After Strong First Half
NatWest’s results follow similarly strong first-half figures from peers. Lloyds Banking Group reported a pre-tax profit of £4.3bn for H1 2026, up 23 per cent from £3.5bn the year prior, clearing an internal analyst target of £4.1bn. Barclays posted a 30 per cent jump in second-quarter profit to £3.3bn, with its bonus pool for the first half rising to £1.3bn from £1bn.
The run of sector profits has drawn calls from the Trades Union Congress and left-wing MPs for Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey to levy a new tax on banks. Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan argued against the proposal, saying for every £1 of capital removed from a bank, around £8 to £10 of lending to businesses and households is lost.
NatWest’s next scheduled update is a Q3 2026 interim management statement on 30 October 2026, per the NatWest Group results news page. Full-year 2026 results are due on 12 February 2027, at which point the bank has said it will consider the share buyback question.
