Operating profit before tax came in at £4.3 billion, from £3.6bn last time, while attributable profit rose to £3bn against £2.5bn for the first half of 2025.

Income increased to £8.7bn from £8bn. The board has declared a 26.3% rise in its interim dividend to 12p from 9.5p.

The bank said it expects to announce its next buyback with full-year results in February, six months earlier than previously planned. 

It said that the strength of its first-half performance and completion of its acquisition of wealth manager Evelyn Partners gives it confidence to strengthen its 2026 guidance. For 2026, it is forecasting income of around £17.9bn from a range of £17.2bn to £17.6bn.

Chief executive Paul Thwaite said: “NatWest Group’s strong performance in the first half of the year shows that our strategy is consistently delivering for customers and shareholders.

“We are growing all three of our customer businesses, becoming even more efficient and delivering market-leading returns, with a Return on Tangible Equity of 19.7%. 

“Our performance is grounded in the support we provide to more than 20 million customers throughout the UK, helping them to plan, save and invest, to get on the housing ladder and to scale and grow their businesses. As a result, deposits, lending and assets under management all continued to grow over the past six months. 

“We are confident in the scale and capabilities we’re building and the opportunities ahead. Through our long-standing relationships, deep regional presence, and responsible adoption of AI, we are well placed to accelerate our progress by doing even more to meet our customers’ needs, as well as helping to generate growth in every nation and region of the UK.

“The consistency of our performance, coupled with the completion of our Evelyn Partners acquisition, has given us the confidence to strengthen our guidance for 2026, whilst our continued capital generation means we have today announced an interim dividend of 12.0p per share and that we will consider share-buybacks from full year 2026, six months earlier than previously planned.”