NatWest back in black as economy recovers from COVID

NatWest back in black as economy recovers from COVID

LONDON: Britain’s NatWest bank said Friday that it surged back into annual profit last year as the economy recovered from COVID, and forecast it stands to gain from rising interest rates. The lender, which is majority-owned by the government, said in a statement that net profit hit £2.95 billion ($4 billion, 3.5 billion euros) in 2021. That contrasted sharply with a loss of £753 million the prior year, when it set aside £3.2 billion in provisions to cover potential fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the UK economy bounced back on easing COVID restrictions, the bank said Friday it was able to release almost £1.3 billion from those provisions. NatWest is the first of Britain’s major banks to publish annual results.

‘Strong performance’

“NatWest Group delivered a strong performance in 2021,” said chief executive Alison Rose. The decision to release some of the provisions reflected “an improvement in the economic outlook and a low level of defaults”. NatWest last year also cut costs by £256 million, while £3.8 billion was redistributed to shareholders via dividends and buybacks.

Some £1.7 million of that cash was handed to UK taxpayers, who own just over 50 percent of the lender. Amid heightened anxiety among Britons over the