NatWest could be back in private hands by mid-2025, chief says

The boss of NatWest has said the bank is on a “very fast trajectory” towards private ownership, saying the Government could fully offload its stake by the first half of 2025.

Paul Thwaite, speaking at the Financial Times’ Global Banking Summit, said it would be a “symbolic” moment.

NatWest received multibillion-pound bailouts funded by taxpayers during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, leaving the Government with an 84% stake in what was then known as Royal Bank of Scotland.

But the Treasury has been selling off its stake in the lender as it looks to return it to private hands.

Its shareholding is currently around 11% after the lender bought back £1 billion of its shares last month.

“I think it is reasonable to expect that, absent some big dislocation in economic events, we will be back to private ownership next year, maybe as early as the first half of the year,” Mr Thwaite said at the conference in London.

He said NatWest was “on a very fast trajectory” to private ownership which “means we can talk about the future of the bank and the potential of the bank rather than having to talk about its past”.

This would be “a great moment and really symbolic” both for the group and for the wider industry, the chief said.

It echoes remarks made earlier this year by NatWest’s chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, who said the Government’s plans to sell its remaining stake would “bring an end to the sorry tale for the UK and for the bank”.

Elsewhere, Mr Thwaite questioned the ring-fencing regime which came into force after the financial crisis, and requires major banks to separate retail banking from their investment and international banking activities.

“I think there’s a time and a place for ring-fencing… my perspective would be that some of the background to ring-fencing, the rationale for some of the changes that were put in place, have in some respects been made redundant by subsequent regulation and legislation,” he said.

“The reality is the UK is the only country in the world that has ring-fencing, so I guess we have to ask the question – why is that?” he said.