NatWest’s results highlight a vast untapped wealth opportunity
Hugh Fairclough, partner and head of financial services at RSM UK, comments on NatWest’s full year results:
“NatWest’s results underline something striking, for all the brand prestige the Coutts name brings, it touches only a fraction of NatWest’s customer base. The bank has 19 million current accounts, yet just 170,000 retail customers invest through it. That gulf shows how little of NatWest’s everyday banking population currently accesses its wealth proposition – and how big the prize is if it can change that.
“The acquisition of Evelyn Partners isn’t really about consolidating the high net worth market; it’s a bet on the appetite and ability for this missing middle to invest their wealth. NatWest is effectively building a modern advice and investment engine for the mass affluent customer that UK banks have historically underserved.
“With interest rate cuts squeezing margins, every major bank is hunting for stable, fee driven growth. NatWest now has the scale and advisory capacity to cross sell investments and financial planning to millions of customers who have never been offered them. That’s where the long term growth lies – and today’s results make that clearer than ever.”