NatWest Raises Guidance and Brings Forward Share-Buyback Plans

By Dominic Chopping

NatWest raised full-year guidance and brought forward its share buyback plans as it reported higher earnings and completed the acquisition of wealth manager Evelyn Partners.

The U.K. lender reported a 29% rise in pretax profit to 2.29 billion pounds ($3.08 billion) for the second quarter, above a company-compiled consensus of 2.04 billion pounds.

Net interest income--what the company earns on loans minus what it pays on deposits--improved from a year earlier, landing in line with expectations of 3.51 billion pounds, while total income rose 12% to 4.5 billion pounds, outpacing a slight increase in costs.

Chief Executive Paul Thwaite said that deposits, lending and assets under management all continued to grow over the past six months, adding that the bank is well placed to accelerate progress.

The bank now expects total income excluding notable items for the year at around 17.9 billion pounds, including around 275 million pounds from the Evelyn Partners deal. It had previously guided to total income at the upper end of a 17.2 billion to 17.6 billion-pound range.

It announced an interim dividend of 12 pence a share and said that it would consider share buybacks from full-year 2026, six months earlier than previously planned.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2026 03:02 ET (07:02 GMT)