NatWest boss Paul Thwaite today said the bank entered 2025 on a positive trajectory after reporting an operating profit of £6.2 billion in annual results today.
While consumer and business confidence dipped in the latter part of 2024, he said NatWest had seen resilience and good levels of activity amongst its customer base.
He added: “Against an uncertain external backdrop, we made good progress on our strategic priorities, grew all three of our customer businesses, and saw an acceleration in the reduction of the UK Government's shareholding.”.
US markets last night closed sharply higher, with the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite up by 1.5% and the S&P 500 index 1% stronger.
A final dividend of 15.5p a share has increased the total for the year by 26% to 21.5p, meaning total distributions to shareholders of £4 billion.
