NatWest, opens new tab reported a 24% jump in annual profit, just ahead of forecasts, and set more ambitious performance targets as it steps up investment in Britain’s costly but potentially lucrative wealth management market.

The British bank posted 2025 pretax profit of 7.7 billion pounds, up from 6.2 billion pounds a year earlier and compared with the 7.5 billion pounds average analyst forecast compiled by the bank.

NatWest said it now expects to deliver a return on tangible equity of more than 18% in 2028, up from previous guidance of over 15% in 2027.

Analysts said the results underlined NatWest’s shift to a simpler, more profitable domestic lender after shedding the globe-spanning ambitions of its RBS era, which ended in a government bailout during the 2008 financial crisis.