NatWest efficiency drive results in job cuts and £420 million of cost savings

NatWest Group has said its quarterly earnings edged higher after its drive for efficiency resulted in cost cutting and the trimming of about 1,000 jobs.

The banking group reported an operating pre-tax profit of £2.2 billion for the three months to September, which was about 2% higher than the same period last year.

It made around £3.6 billion in net interest income – the difference between what banks make from loans and what they pay out on deposits – which was a jump of nearly 9% compared with the year before.

NatWest joins other high street lenders including Lloyds and Barclays that have reported an income increase while interest rates have remained high.

It also hailed the progress it had made towards becoming a simpler and technology-driven bank.

This has led to the reduction of about 1,000 full-time staff in the quarter, bringing the total of jobs lost to 1,400 so far this year.

However, the recent acquisition of wealth manager Evelyn Partners has brought around 2,200 staff into the group, driving up its overall headcount.

NatWest said it had managed to make cost savings of around £420 million, helping bring down its cost-to-income ratio – the amount it spends on running the business as a percentage of what it generates in income – to 45.7% for the year-to-date.

This has been helped by investment into technology including AI tools, with recent trials of a spending insights helper and a fraud agent for credit card customers.

Chief executive Paul Thwaite said: “As we help more customers to save and invest, buy a home or expand their businesses, we continue to see broad-based growth in our three customer franchises, with lending, deposits and assets under management all increasing during the quarter.”