NatWest Group — BrandWiki

NatWest Group

Overview

NatWest Group plc

former name	The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Public Limited Company (1968–2020)
type	Public
traded as	lse: NWG nyse: NWG FTSE 100 Component
foundation	March 25, 1968
location	Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
area served	United Kingdom
key people	Richard Haythornthwaite (chairman) Paul Thwaite (group chief executive)

industry	Banking Financial services

products	Asset management Banking Commodities Credit cards Equities trading Insurance Investment management Mortgage loans Private equity Wealth management

revenue	£16.641 billion (2025)‡R1R‡

operating income	£7.708 billion (2025)‡R1R‡

net income	£5.834 billion (2025)‡R1R‡

assets	£714.553 billion (2025)‡R1R‡

equity	£42.613 billion (2025)‡R1R‡

num employees	59,300 (2025)‡R1R‡

subsid	NatWest Holdings NatWest Markets RBS International

homepage	https://natwestgroup.com

NatWest Group plc[2] is a British banking and insurance holding company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The group operates a wide variety of banking brands offering personal and business banking, private banking, investment banking, insurance and corporate finance. In the United Kingdom, its main subsidiary companies are National Westminster Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland,[3] NatWest Markets and Coutts.[4] The group issues banknotes in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Before the 2008 financial crisis, NatWest was very briefly the largest bank in the world, and for a period was the second-largest bank in the UK and Europe and the fifth-largest in the world by market capitalisation. Subsequently, with a slumping share price and major loss of confidence, the bank fell sharply in the rankings, although in 2009 it was briefly the world's largest company by both assets (£1.9 trillion) and liabilities (£1.8 trillion).[5]

The bank was bailed out by the UK government via the 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package.[6] The government retained a majority share until 28 March 2022, held and managed through UK Government Investments. It subsequently reduced its shareholding in a series of transactions, selling off its final shares on 30 May 2025, at a total loss of £10bn to the taxpayer.[7]

In addition to its primary share listing on the London Stock Exchange, the company is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

History

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group

By the late 1960s, economic conditions were becoming more difficult for the banking sector. In response, the National Commercial Bank of Scotland merged with the Royal Bank of Scotland.[8] The merger resulted in a new holding company, the National and Commercial Banking Group being founded in 1968, with the merger formalised in 1969.[9] The holding company was renamed The Royal Bank of Scotland Group in 1979[10] and became a public company in 1982.[11]

The late 1990s saw a new wave of consolidation in the financial services sector. In 1999, the Bank of Scotland

Corporate structure

NatWest Group is split into four main customer-facing franchises, each with several subsidiary businesses, and it also has a number of support functions.[98]

Retail banking

The NatWest Holdings segment comprises the retail banking division of the bank:[99] the business operates in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland under the NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank names. Key subsidiaries include:

Private banking

Senior leadership

Chairman: Richard Haythornthwaite (since April 2024)[100]
Chief Executive: Paul Thwaite (since February 2024) (interim from July 2023 to February 2024)[101]
Chief Financial Officer: Katie Murray (since January 2019)[102]
Chief Governance Officer & Company Secretary: Jan Cargill (since August 2019)[102]

Non-executive board members

Controversies

Media commentary and criticism

During Goodwin's tenure as CEO, he attracted some criticism for lavish spending, including on the construction of a £350m headquarters in Edinburgh opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005[118] and a $500m headquarters in the US begun in 2006,[119] and the use of a Dassault Falcon 900 jet owned by leasing subsidiary Lombard for occasional corporate travel.[120]

In February 2009, RBS reported that, while Fred Goodwin was at the helm, it had posted a loss of £24.1bn, the biggest loss in UK corporate history.[121] His responsibility for the expansion of RBS, which led to the losses, has drawn widespread criticism. His image was not enhanced by the news that emerged in questioning by the Treasury Select Committee

External links

References

Annual Results 2025 NatWest Group, retrieved 13 February 2026^
NatWest Group PLC overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK Companies House, 1968-03-25, retrieved 2024-02-20^
The Scottish Gaelic name is used by its retail banking branches in parts of Scotland, especially in signage and customer stationery.^

2007–2008 financial crisis

On 22 April 2008, RBS announced a rights issue which aimed to raise £12 billion in new capital to offset a writedown of £5.9 billion resulting from credit market positions and to shore up its reserves following the purchase of ABN AMRO. This was, at the time, the largest rights issue in British corporate history.[27][28]

The bank also announced that it would review the possibility of divesting some of its subsidiaries to raise further funds, notably its insurance divisions Direct Line and Churchill.[29] Additionally, the bank's stake in Tesco Bank was bought by Tesco for £950 million in 2008.[30][31]

On 13 October 2008, in a move aimed at recapitalising the bank, it was announced that the British Government would take a stake of up to 58% in the Group. The aim was to "make available new tier 1 capital to UK banks and building societies to strengthen their resources permitting them to restructure their finances, while maintaining their support for the real economy, through the recapitalisation scheme which has been made available to eligible institutions".[32]

HM Treasury injected £37 billion ($64 billion, €47 billion, equivalent to £617 per citizen of the UK) of new capital into Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Lloyds TSB and HBOS, to avert financial sector collapse. The government stressed, however, that it was not "standard public ownership" and that the banks would return to private investors "at the right time".[33][34]

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated that the UK government would benefit from its rescue plan, for it would have some control over RBS in exchange for £5 billion in preference shares and underwriting the issuance of a further £15 billion in ordinary shares. If shareholder take-up of the share issue was 0%, then total government ownership in RBS would be 58%; and, if shareholder take-up was 100%, then total government ownership in RBS would be 0%.[35] Less than 56 million new shares were taken up by investors, or 0.24pc of the total offered by RBS in October 2008.[36]

As a consequence of this rescue, the chief executive of the group, Fred Goodwin, offered his resignation and it was duly accepted. Sir Tom McKillop confirmed that he would stand down from his role as chairman when his contract expired in March 2009. Goodwin was replaced by Stephen Hester, previously the chief executive of British Land, who commenced work at the Royal Bank of Scotland in November 2008.[37]

On 19 January 2009, the British Government announced a further injection of funds into the UK banking system in an attempt to restart personal and business lending. This would involve the creation of a state-backed insurance scheme which would allow banks to insure against existing loans going into default, in an attempt to restore the banks' confidence.[38]

At the same time the government announced its intention to convert the preference shares in RBS that it had acquired in October 2008 to ordinary shares. This would remove the 12% coupon payment (£600m p.a.) on the shares but would increase the state's holding in the bank from 58% to 70%.[39]

On the same day RBS released a trading statement in which it expected to post full-year trading losses (before writedowns) of between £7bn and £8bn. The group also announced writedowns on goodwills (primarily related to the takeover of Dutch bank ABN-AMRO) of around £20bn. The combined total of £28bn would be the biggest ever annual loss in UK corporate history (the actual figure was £24.1bn). As a result, during the Blue Monday Crash, the group's share price fell over 66% in one day to 10.9p per share, from a 52-week high of 354p per share, itself a drop of 97%.[39]

Mid-2008 onwards

RBS' contractual commitment to retain the 4.26% Bank of China (BoC) stake ended on 31 December 2008, and the shares were sold on 14 January 2009. Exchange rate fluctuations meant that RBS made no profit on the deal. The Scottish press suggested two reasons for the move: the need for a bank mainly owned by HM Treasury to focus scarce capital on British markets, and the growth possibility of RBS's own China operations.[40][41]

Also in March 2009, RBS revealed that its traders had been involved in the purchase and sale of sub-prime securities under the supervision of Fred Goodwin.[42]

In September 2009, RBS and NatWest announced dramatic cuts in their overdraft fees including the unpaid item fee (from £38 to £5), the card misuse fee (from £35 to £15) and the monthly maintenance charge for going overdrawn without consent (from £28 to £20).[43] The cuts came at a time when the row over the legality of unauthorised borrowing reached the House of Lords. The fees were estimated to earn current account providers about £2.6bn a year.[44] The Consumers' Association chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith, said: "This is a step in the right direction and a victory for consumer pressure."[43]

In November 2009, RBS announced plans to cut 3,700 jobs in addition to 16,000 already planned, while the government increased its stake in the company from 70% to 84%.[45]

In December 2009, the RBS board revolted against the main shareholder, the British government. They threatened to resign unless they were permitted to pay bonuses of £1.5bn to staff in its investment arm.[46]

More than 100 senior bank executives at the Royal Bank of Scotland were paid more than £1 million in late 2010 and total bonus payouts reached nearly £1 billion – even though the bailed-out bank reported losses of £1.1 billion for 2010. The 2010 figure was an improvement on the loss of £3.6 billion in 2009 and the record-breaking £24bn loss in 2008. The bonuses for staff in 2010 topped £950 million. The CEO Stephen Hester got £8 million in payments for the year. Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite the Union, said: "Taxpayers will be baffled as to how it is possible that while we own 84% of this bank it continues to so handsomely reward its investment bankers."[47]

In October 2011, Moody's downgraded the credit rating of 12 UK financial firms, including RBS, blaming financial weakness.[48]

In January 2012, there was press controversy about Hester's bonus—Hester was offered share options with a total value of £963,000 that would be held in long-term plans, and only paid out if he met strict and tough targets. If he failed to do this, it would be clawed-back. The Treasury permitted the payment because they feared the resignation of Hester and much of the board if the payment was vetoed by the government as the majority shareholder.[49] After a large amount of criticism[50][51][52] in the press, news emerged of Chairman Sir Philip Hampton turning down his own bonus of £1.4 million several weeks before the controversy.[51] Hester, who had been on holiday in Switzerland at the time, turned down his own bonus shortly after.[53]

In June 2012, a failure of an upgrade to payment processing software meant that a substantial proportion of customers could not transfer money to or from their accounts. This meant that RBS had to open a number of branches on a Sunday – the first time that they had had to do this.[54]

RBS released a statement on 12 June 2013 that announced a transition in which CEO Stephen Hester would stand down in December 2013 for the financial institution "to return to private ownership by the end of 2014". For his part in the procession of the transition, Hester would receive 12 months' pay and benefits worth £1.6 million, as well as the potential for £4 million in shares. The RBS stated that, as of the announcement, the search for Hester's successor would commence.[55] Ross McEwan, the head of retail banking at RBS, was selected to replace Hester in July 2013.[56]

On 4 August 2015 the UK government began the process of selling shares back to the private sector, reducing its ownership of ordinary shares from 61.3% to 51.5% and its total economic ownership (including B shares) from 78.3% to 72.9%. On 5 June 2018 the government reduced its ownership through UK Government Investments to 62.4%[57] at a loss of £2 billion.[58]

NatWest Group

History

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group

Corporate structure

Retail banking

Private banking

Senior leadership

Non-executive board members

Controversies

Media commentary and criticism

See also

External links

References

Integration of NatWest with Royal Bank of Scotland

Further expansion

2007–2008 financial crisis

Mid-2008 onwards

Restructuring

Williams & Glyn divestment

2020 group rebranding

Commercial and institutional

Support functions

List of former Chairmen

List of former chief executives

Fossil fuel financing

Canadian oil sands

Canadian oil sands

Huntingdon Life Sciences

Nigel Farage

Regulatory breaches

Staff Messaging

History

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group

Corporate structure

Retail banking

Private banking

Senior leadership

Non-executive board members

Controversies

Media commentary and criticism

See also

External links

References

Integration of NatWest with Royal Bank of Scotland

Further expansion

2007–2008 financial crisis

Mid-2008 onwards

Restructuring

Williams & Glyn divestment

2020 group rebranding

Further Government share sales

Commercial and institutional

Support functions

List of former Chairmen

List of former chief executives

Fossil fuel financing

Canadian oil sands

Canadian oil sands

Huntingdon Life Sciences

Nigel Farage

Regulatory breaches

Staff Messaging