NatWest Group PLC on Friday said its income and pretax operating profit grew ahead of expectations in the first quarter of 2023 and that it is retaining its full-year guidance.
The U.K. bank
NWG,
posted a pretax operating profit of 1.82 billion pounds ($2.27 billion) compared with GBP1.25 billion for the year-earlier period. A company-compiled consensus had expected it to report GBP1.57 billion.
The FTSE 100 lender’s total income rose to GBP3.88 billion for the quarter compared with GBP3.00 billion, of which GBP2.90 billion were net interest income. Consensus had penciled in GBP3.76 billion of which GBP2.97 billion in net interest income.
Its net attributable profit came in at GBP1.28 billion, beating consensus’ GBP1.07 billion and up from GBP841 million last year.
Bank net interest margin was 3.27% for the period, compared with the fourth-quarter’s 3.20% and consensus’ 3.38%.
NatWest’s common equity Tier 1 ratio–a key measure of balance-sheet strength–was 14.4%, compared with 14.2% for the previous quarter and 14.0% from consensus.
Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com
