NatWest Group plc
Acquisitions
3
Major Deals Covered
$92.0B
Disclosed Deal Value
NatWest's largest disclosed acquisition here is ABN AMRO for $71B in 2007. This page covers 3 major deals from 2000 to 2021, each with its price where disclosed and the reason behind it.
| Company | Year | Price | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Westminster Bank (NatWest) | 2000 | $21.0B | RBS made a hostile bid of about $27.7 billion (£21 billion) for the larger National Westminster Bank, beating a rival offer from Bank of Scotland. |
| ABN AMRO | 2007 | $71.0B | RBS led a consortium with Fortis and Santander that bought ABN AMRO for about $80.2 billion (€71 billion) in 2007, with RBS taking the wholesale and international businesses. |
| Rooster Money | 2021 | Undisclosed | NatWest bought RoosterMoney, a pocket-money and financial education app for children, to add family banking tools. |
2021
NatWest bought RoosterMoney, a pocket-money and financial education app for children, to add family banking tools.
The app gave NatWest a product aimed at younger customers and their parents.
RoosterMoney was integrated into NatWest's retail offering for families.
2007
$71.0B
RBS led a consortium with Fortis and Santander that bought ABN AMRO for about $80.2 billion (€71 billion) in 2007, with RBS taking the wholesale and international businesses.
The deal, then the largest bank takeover on record, was funded largely with debt and left RBS thinly capitalised as the credit crisis deepened.
Losses linked to the deal contributed to the October 2008 UK government recapitalisation of RBS.
2000
$21.0B
RBS made a hostile bid of about $27.7 billion (£21 billion) for the larger National Westminster Bank, beating a rival offer from Bank of Scotland.
The deal gave RBS a large English retail and business banking franchise and made it one of the UK's biggest banks.
The NatWest franchise became the core of the group after the crisis, and the parent company was renamed NatWest Group in 2020.
NatWest's strategy under Paul Thwaite has three strands: grow customer balances across its three businesses, simplify the bank through digital self-service, AI and branch consolidation, and manage capital to fund both bolt-on deals and distributions. Recent deals show the direction: Sainsbury's Bank's core banking assets and a Metro Bank mortgage portfolio in 2024, then Evelyn Partners in 2026, which management says creates the UK's largest private banking and wealth manager by combined assets and lifts fee income by about 20%. Its target is RoTE above 18% through 2028.
NatWest makes most of its money from net interest income: it gathers UK current-account and savings deposits and lends them out as mortgages, personal loans, cards and business credit, earning the spread plus income from its structural hedge. It reports three businesses. Retail Banking (NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank brands) earned ~$4.12 billion (£3.12 billion) operating profit in 2025; Commercial & Institutional, which serves SMEs, mid-market and large corporates, earned ~$5.36 billion (£4.06 billion); and Private Banking & Wealth Management (Coutts, and from July 2026 Evelyn Partners) earned ~$520 million (£394 million). Fee income from payments, cards, lending and wealth advice adds a second, less rate-sensitive stream, which management expects the Evelyn deal to lift by about 20%.
In 2018, RBS/NatWest acquired Edinburgh-based cloud accounting fintech FreeAgent for ~$70 million (£53 million), allowing NatWest to provide free, automated cloud bookkeeping and tax filing software directly to its hundreds of thousands of small business banking customers.
In 2023, NatWest acquired an 85% majority stake in workplace pension and savings fintech Cushon for ~$190 million (£144 million), enabling the bank to distribute modern, climate-friendly auto-enrolment corporate pensions and ISAs directly to commercial employer clients.
In June 2024, NatWest agreed to acquire the core retail banking assets of Sainsbury's Bank, including approximately $3.3 billion (£2.5 billion) of gross customer loans (personal loans and credit cards) and ~$3.43 billion (£2.6 billion) of customer deposits, expanding its UK consumer finance portfolio.
In July 2024, NatWest acquired a ~$3.3 billion (£2.5 billion) prime residential UK mortgage portfolio from Metro Bank for ~$3.17 billion (£2.4 billion) in cash, instantly adding high-quality, performing home loans to NatWest's balance sheet at an attractive risk-adjusted yield.
In October 2007, an RBS-led consortium (including Fortis and Santander) completed the ~$80.2 billion (€71 billion) hostile acquisition of Dutch banking group ABN AMRO. The deal severely overleveraged RBS with subprime exposure just as global credit markets froze, triggering RBS's collapse.
As part of its post-crisis restructuring mandate, RBS executed an initial public offering (IPO) of Rhode Island-based Citizens Financial Group on the NYSE in 2014, fully completing the multi-billion-dollar divestment by late 2015 to focus exclusively on UK banking.
In 2021, NatWest initiated a phased, orderly wind-down of Ulster Bank Ireland DAC in the Republic of Ireland, selling commercial loan portfolios to Allied Irish Banks (AIB) and retail mortgages to Permanent TSB due to structurally low market returns.
In 2021, NatWest acquired RoosterMoney, a children's pocket money and financial education app, integrating it into the NatWest ecosystem to offer interactive savings tools and prepaid debit cards to families and young savers across the UK.
In June 2024, NatWest acquired the core retail banking assets, personal loan book, and credit card portfolio of Sainsbury's Bank for no upfront cash consideration, absorbing approximately £2.5 billion in gross customer assets and adding one million retail banking customers.
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