Business performance
When I was permanently appointed as Chief Executive in February 2024, I set out three clear priorities to create value for our shareholders. Firstly, to deliver disciplined growth; secondly, to enable bank-wide simplification; and finally, to focus on active balance sheet and risk management. We made good progress against each of these, and we now have strong conviction they are the right priorities to help us succeed.
Throughout 2024, NatWest Group delivered a strong performance, with income excluding notable items of £14.6 billion, and a return on tangible equity (RoTE) of 17.5%.
Our operating profit before tax was up on 2023, at £6.2 billion. Importantly, we welcomed around 500,000 new customers to NatWest Group, grew each of our three customer businesses and delivered growth on both sides of the balance sheet – with increases in lending and deposits, as well as assets under management.
For our shareholders, we generated attractive returns and distributed £4.0 billion through a combination of dividends and buybacks, with dividends per share increasing by 26%. We have also confirmed that we intend to increase our ordinary dividend payout ratio from c.40% to c.50% from 2025.
Our performance is grounded in the support and services we provide to our customers and the wider UK economy.
Throughout 2024, we helped over 351,000 mortgage customers to buy or refinance their homes. This included helping over 35,000 first-time buyers to get on the housing ladder. At the same time, we helped more than 400,000 customers to save £100 with us for the first time in 2024. For business customers, we grew our lending by £10 billion and welcomed 91,000 new start-ups to NatWest Group, helping more businesses across Britain get started than any other bank.
We also continued to adapt and innovate, launching services to meet our customers’ changing needs and improve the services we offer. These included a new proposition which allows high-growth businesses to secure lending against their intellectual property. Elsewhere, putting customers’ needs front of mind, we brought to market a travel credit card with 0% foreign transaction fees, and mortgage offers available in as little as 24 hours. Improvements to internal processes have also enabled us to reduce our Foreign Exchange client onboarding times by 83% on average.
We also provided £31.5 billion of climate and sustainable funding and financing in 2024; this took our cumulative total to £93.4 billion towards our target to provide £100 billion between 1 July 2021 and the end of 2025.
To complement the organic growth that we have generated in Retail Banking, we were proactive in making a number of acquisitions that build on our existing areas of strength. Our acquisition of the retail assets and liabilities from Sainsbury’s Bank will add around one million Retail Banking customer accounts when it is completed. And, in September 2024, we also acquired £2.3 billion of prime residential mortgages from Metro Bank. Both transactions help accelerate growth at attractive returns, in line with our strategic priorities.
