NatWest reports better-than-expected profits as it battles to contain Farage row

Bank delivers pre-tax profit of £3.6 billion amid controversy over closure of ex-politician's account

NatWest's profit beat the average analyst forecast of £3.3 billion. Bloomberg

Britain's largest business bank, NatWest Group, has reported a stronger-than-expected first-half profit, days after a shake-up at the top amid the row over Nigel Farage's account closure.

NatWest delivered a pre-tax profit of £3.6 billion ($4.6 billion) for the first half of the year, a significant increase compared to the £2.6 billion reported for year before and beating the average analyst forecast of £3.3 billion.

This marks an almost £1 billion year-on-year profit increase for the banking group.

A combination of higher borrowing costs and increased lending contributed to the strong performance.

A crisis prompted by the mishandling of former Brexit Party leader Farage's account closure led to the ousting of chief executive Alison Rose and Coutts boss Peter Flavel earlier this week.

The turmoil followed the emergence of a dossier which revealed that a bank committee had said Mr Farage's views were not in line with the lender's own.

The mismanagement of this matter led to heavy criticism, ultimately costing Ms Rose and Mr Flavel their positions.

Ms Rose admitted to a “serious error of judgment” in discussing Mr Farage's relationship with the bank with a BBC journalist.

Yet the bank's crisis was barely mentioned in the earnings release, which featured only the announcement that former commercial banking boss Paul Thwaite had been promoted to interim chief executive for an initial period of 12 months.

NatWest chairman Howard Davies said political pressure was a factor behind the unexpected departure of Ms Rose amid the bank's struggle to recover from a damaging confrontation with former Brexit party leader.

Mr Davies confirmed the role of political factors in the departure for the first time on Friday. "The political reaction to retaining Alison as CEO was such that her position was untenable," he said.

The chairman, who has decided to remain with the bank for the time being, also paid tribute to Ms Rose's leadership qualities.

"We've lost a great leader," he said.

An independent review by Travers Smith, due for completion in October, will scrutinise the closure of Mr Farage's accounts with Coutts, a related BBC article and other account closures made by the bank in the past two years.

The review's findings will be made public to identify potential areas for improvement.

NatWest declared an interim dividend of 5.5 pence per share and announced a share buyback scheme of up to £500 million for the latter half of the year, providing additional returns to shareholders.

However, the bank said it expects higher interest rates to be largely counterbalanced by savings rates and mortgage income reductions throughout the rest of the year.