LONDON, April 30, 2026, 16:02 BST
NatWest Group Plc heads into Friday’s first-quarter results with Chairman Rick Haythornthwaite under fresh investor pressure after a climate dispute spilled into its annual meeting. A regulatory filing showed Haythornthwaite was re-elected with 92.09% support, the weakest backing of the bank’s 25 AGM resolutions, with 7.91% voting against him.
The timing is awkward for Britain’s high street lender. NatWest is due to release first-quarter results at 7 a.m. BST on May 1, followed by a management presentation two hours later, putting governance questions on the same calendar as the bank’s earnings update.
Company-published analyst consensus, based on 14 models as of April 20, put NatWest’s first-quarter total income at about 4.31 billion pounds and operating profit before tax at 1.94 billion pounds. The same consensus pencilled in a 2.47% net interest margin, the gap between what a bank earns on loans and what it pays on deposits.
The Guardian reported that protesters forced a roughly half-hour adjournment at the Edinburgh AGM, after which shareholder questions focused on climate policy and executive pay. Mara Lilley of the Church of England pension board said its vote against Haythornthwaite reflected “concerns about NatWest backtracking on its climate commitments,” while ShareAction’s Jeanne Martin called the vote a “significant level of dissent.” The Guardian
The row traces back to February, when Reuters reported that NatWest had softened fossil-fuel lending rules, including removing bans tied to reserve-based lending for oil and gas projects and to oil majors lacking climate-aligned transition plans. ShareAction’s Kelly Shields said at the time that stepping back from restrictions on financing large fossil-fuel firms was a “serious concern.” Reuters
NatWest has defended the broader shape of its climate plan. The bank says it has kept its ambition to be net zero across financed emissions, assets under management and its operational value chain by 2050, and to at least halve the climate impact of its financing activity by 2030 against a 2019 baseline.
The bank’s management is also trying to keep investors focused on its post-state-ownership growth story. At the AGM, executives cited 2025 income of 16.4 billion pounds, operating profit of 7.7 billion pounds and mortgage balance growth of 7 billion pounds, and said the planned acquisition of Evelyn Partners was expected to complete in the months ahead.
Peer results have raised the bar. Barclays reported first-quarter profit before tax of 2.8 billion pounds and a fresh 500 million pound buyback, while Lloyds Banking Group reported a 33% rise in quarterly earnings and net interest income of 3.57 billion pounds. Investors will compare NatWest with those domestic rivals on margin, credit quality and capital returns.
But the risks are plain. Reuters reported Thursday that the Bank of England left rates unchanged, while setting out scenarios for the Iran war that could require a “forceful” rise in borrowing costs; higher rates can support bank margins at first, but they can also squeeze borrowers and lift loan-loss charges if the economy weakens. Reuters
For now, Haythornthwaite has the mandate. The question is whether Friday’s numbers let NatWest move the conversation back to earnings, or whether the climate fight keeps following the bank into investor meetings; BusinessGreen reported the re-elected chair had agreed to meet investors concerned about the bank’s climate policy after the AGM disruption.
