AGM 2026

Apr 28, 2026

Good morning, welcome to NatWest Group's annual general meeting for 2026. It's a pleasure to welcome you here today at our Gogarburn headquarters in Scotland, a nation that has long been central to our story and which continues to play a vital role in the future we're building together. Let me begin by thanking you, our shareholders, for your continued support, both here today and through our ongoing program of engagement, including during last week's virtual shareholder event. Before we start, may I ask you to switch off all mobile phones or place them on silent mode. Please also note that the use of photography or filming on personal devices is prohibited. Our auditorium has induction loops for the hard of hearing, and this facility is available at the front of the room. If anyone is experiencing any difficulty, please notify one of the stewards, who will be able to assist you. The proceedings are also being signed, and there will be subtitles for those viewing on the webcast. Should you wish to submit documents for the board, please pass them to an usher, but please do not approach the stage. Since the last AGM, we have continued our practice to engage with our shareholders through a virtual event in advance of the AGM. The virtual event was held on the 21st of April and allowed shareholders who are unable to attend today's meeting to ask questions of Paul, our Group CEO, and me. Those shareholders not attending today also had the opportunity to vote online on the resolutions. We have posted on our website the questions raised at the virtual event and the answers given. Let me now introduce our board. From your left to right, we have Albert Hitchcock, Roisin Donnelly, Stuart Lewis, Patrick Flynn, Katie Murray, Paul Thwaite, our Company Secretary, Gary Moore, Lena Wilson, Gill Whitehead, Geeta Gopalan, and Josh Critchley. Also, not on the stage, our three directors of NatWest Holdings, the ring-fenced bank, who play a full part in the governance of the group: Francesca Barnes, Karin Cook, and Mark Rennison. Before turning to our performance, it's worth recognizing the significance of the past year for NatWest Group following our return to full private ownership in May 2025, when the U.K. government sold its final shares in the bank. This milestone is a testament to the progress we have made in recent years, as well as the longer term transformation that has seen our bank become simpler, stronger, and more customer-oriented. It was a symbolic moment because it turns the page on an important chapter in our history, it also reflects how far the organization has come. It gives us the opportunity to look forward with confidence and conviction while never forgetting the lessons of the past. We've started 2026 with positive momentum on which we can build. We're not standing still. A new chapter is well underway, one defined not by recovery, but by an ambition to succeed for the long term, helping turn our customers' possibilities into progress across the U.K. Turning now to performance. The past year was one of strong, consistent performance against our strategic priorities. However, our progress is not measured solely in financial results, important though they are. It is measured in the trust we continue to earn and in the long-term value we create for our shareholders, our customers, and the wider economy. We've continued to grow our customer base, strengthen our core franchises, and invest in the capabilities that will define the bank of the future. For shareholders, we can see this in tangible outcomes. Group delivered attractive returns through a combination of dividends and share buybacks. Having raised our dividend payout ratio, we announced total dividends per share of GBP 0.325, an increase of 51% compared to the previous year. Alongside this, we also announced a GBP 750 million buyback in July and a further GBP 750 million buyback a few months ago at our full year results. This is the result of disciplined execution on growth, on capital, and on risk, and it reinforces a simple truth: This is a bank that is performing today while building for tomorrow. This means giving confidence to our shareholders in the sustainability of our returns and having the capacity to invest in our future, building on the strong organic growth we are already delivering, as well as considering acquisitions where we see both a clear strategic fit and value for shareholders. Our acquisition of Evelyn Partners reflects our positive momentum. It is a timely and compelling transaction, which I know Paul will expand on shortly. As owners of the business, shareholders rightly expect the group to allocate capital with discipline and with clear strategic intent in order to further strengthen our performance. The board takes that responsibility seriously. We know that consistency of delivery truly matters, and that confidence is earned over time. Over recent years, uncertainty and volatility have been a persistent feature of our operating environment. Growth is present, but it is uneven. It varies by sector, by region, and by levels of financial resilience, and it demands discipline and selectivity. What has been striking over the past year is that behaviors have often proved more resilient than sentiment. Across households and businesses, people continue to plan, invest, and adapt even in the face of uncertainty, but with greater discipline and a renewed focus on returns and value for money. We should be clear, there are near-term challenges. Recent global events mean pressures have elevated for many households and businesses. From a board perspective, maintaining a longer-term view is essential, and we believe deeply in the long-term strengths of the U.K. The U.K. faces into today's challenges with significant structural strengths, including strong institutions, deep pools of talent, and an enduring capacity to innovate. For a bank such as ours, this environment only reinforces our role to use our strength and expertise to support customers through periods of adjustment, to allocate capital with discipline, and to help enable the investment that underpins future growth. One of the most important and rewarding parts of my role is staying close to those we serve and to those who shape our operating environment. Even in the past month alone, that engagement has taken me to the United States, meeting with technology leaders, to business innovation events with AI startups, and closer to home, spending time with businesses and communities in Kent. Through our board engagement, we hear directly from customers, colleagues, policymakers, and regulators across the U.K. and internationally. Those perspectives matter. Wherever I've been, it is clear that there is a genuine appetite to understand how banks can support long-term growth. Those conversations also reinforce something fundamental: growth and opportunity are not uniform, which is why our local connections, combined with our national scale and insight, are not only a defining source of strength for NatWest Group, they are central to how we support growth across the U.K. Let me bring that to life with an example here in Scotland, a nation where we have deep roots and a longstanding commitment to supporting local economies and communities. As we approach the Royal Bank's 300-year anniversary next year, that sense of long-term partnership matters more than ever, not only as part of our history, but as part of the future that we're building. Over the past year, we've continued to strengthen the support we provide to Scotland's entrepreneurs and businesses. We've announced a new Accelerator partnership with the University of Edinburgh, launched specialist venture banking services, and announced the launch of intellectual property lending, reflecting our focus on backing innovation and helping businesses realize the value of their ideas. Just last week, we also opened the new Accelerator hub on Princes Street in Edinburgh. From the heart of the city, this hub brings together expert support, mentoring and networks, helping ambitious businesses connect capital with opportunity. This builds on our longstanding Accelerator program, which has supported more than 1,000 entrepreneurs across Scotland over the past decade and forms part of our wider commitment to substantially increase support for 5,000 Scottish entrepreneurs in the years ahead. That is what supporting growth looks like in practice, combining deep local relationships with the scale and capability of a national bank. Customer expectations continue to evolve, shaped by technology, data, and AI, and by the pace of change across the wider economy. These shifts bring challenges, but also significant opportunities. We see AI as an accelerant of our strategy, helping us serve customers more seamlessly, support colleagues to work more effectively, and strengthen how we manage risk and resilience. At our core, banks like NatWest play a vital enabling role, supporting investment, backing businesses as they grow, and helping to create jobs and prosperity throughout the country. We're not simply providers of capital. Our role goes well beyond lending. Increasingly, we are long-term partners offering expert advice and insights and connecting capital with opportunity. In this endeavor, a predictable, proportionate approach to regulation and policymaking is essential to giving businesses and consumers the confidence to invest, innovate, and succeed. We have seen a marked shift in recent years as politicians and regulators have sought to prioritize growth, balancing it with the need for stability. There has been some notable progress beyond the rhetoric, but it remains early days, and business must play its part. Through collaboration between the public and private sectors, we can build a stable, supportive environment that fosters innovation, contributes to positive and sustainable economic outcomes, and supports long-term competitiveness and growth. As a board, we have remained closely engaged on the issues that matter most to the long-term success of the group, be that our strategic intent, our risk appetite, or how we are positioning ourselves for a changing economic and technological landscape. We've also ensured the board evolves in the right way with the leadership, culture, and capabilities needed to support our ambitions. Late last year, we welcomed Josh Critchley as an independent non-executive director, and in February, Albert Hitchcock joined the board. Together, they bring a breadth of skills, experience, and perspective that strengthens the board, and I very much look forward to working with them as we continue to guide the group through the next year. On the 31st of March, Yasmin Jetha retired after 9 years of outstanding service. I want to thank Yasmin for her significant contribution and wise counsel over that period. We were deeply saddened by the passing of Frank Dangeard, Chair of NatWest Markets, in August. His wisdom and integrity left a lasting impression on all of us. As we begin 2026, we do so with conviction and positive momentum and with a clear sense of how we can build on our progress. Where does that leave us? We're a bank in good shape. We have a clear strategy. We're delivering against it, and we're building the capabilities that will define our future competitiveness. There's more to do. The direction is clear, and the foundations are strong. Let me conclude by turning to our leadership. I have great confidence in Paul and the leadership team. They've demonstrated both the discipline to deliver and the ambition to raise our sights. Paul will now take you through the group's performance and strategy in more detail and outline how we are contributing to execute our priorities for the years ahead. From the perspective of the board, the message is simple. This is a bank with momentum, a bank with purpose, a bank with the strength to navigate uncertainty, and a bank with the ambition and the capability to succeed with our customers in the years to come. With that, I will hand over to Paul before we take your questions. Thank you, Rick. Good morning, everyone. Let me begin with a question, one that sits behind everything we do as a bank. Are we making it easier for people, businesses, and communities across the U.K. to make progress? In short, are we helping our customers to succeed? Ultimately, that is the test of our strategy and how we create sustainable value for our shareholders and the wider U.K. economy. Our scale and performance only matter if they translate into real positive outcomes for customers, whether supporting a business to start, to grow, or to invest, helping people to buy their first home, or helping families save and plan for the future. Today, I firmly believe we can answer that question with confidence. Put simply, yes, we are, and the progress we made in 2025 is very clear evidence of that. It was another year that showed our strategy is working, where the activity of our customers underpinned our strong financial performance. Income of GBP 16.4 billion, operating profits of GBP 7.7 billion, and a return on tangible equity of 19.2%, all significantly higher than the year before. Just as importantly, we continue to grow with our customers, supporting more than 20 million people, family, and businesses in every nation and every region of the U.K. The momentum we've built is already visible in our performance, in our delivery, and in the way we are executing against our three strategic priorities. Our first priority is disciplined growth. Across the group, healthy levels of customer activity drove broad-based growth with deposits, lending, and assets under management all higher year-on-year. We continue to introduce new products and services to meet customers' changing needs, from the launch of our family-backed mortgage to extending our intellectual property-backed lending for businesses. In retail, we supported families and households to manage their finances with confidence, and we made homeownership a reality for more people, growing mortgage balances by GBP 7 billion and helping over 50,000 customers to buy their first home. In commercial and institutional banking, we continue to support 1.5 million businesses, from startups and scale-ups to large institutions, backing investment and growth across the economy, including in sectors such as infrastructure, social housing, and climate and transition finance, where we can support sustainable economic growth at scale. In private banking and wealth, we help more customers to save and invest, strengthening our proposition to meet growing demand for high quality financial advice and long-term planning, with assets under management increasing by 20%, including 50,000 customers investing with us for the first time. Our organic growth was complemented by the successful integration of more than 1 million Sainsbury's Bank customers and the GBP 2.3 billion mortgage portfolio from Metro Bank. Earlier this year, we announced our acquisition of Evelyn Partners, set to complete in the months ahead. Alongside this, our second priority of bank-wide simplification remains a critical driver of our growth. By reducing complexity, improving productivity, enhancing customer experience, we create the capacity to invest, innovate, and serve customers better. Accelerated deployment of technology and AI. AI has enabled faster innovation, more personalized and safer services, more resilient banking, but only when applied with judgment and with care. Applied in the right way, the benefits for both customers and colleagues are clear. It means quicker, more informed decisions, smoother experiences, and more time for our people to focus on where they can add the greatest value. That is how technology strengthens trust, by putting better tools and information in the hands of our brilliant people. AI can complement their judgment, their experience, and their expertise. Done responsibly, it improves decision-making and frees colleagues to focus on what matters most, trusted relationships and delivering better outcomes for customers. On our final strategic priority, our active risk and balance sheet management remains a core strength. Strong capital generation is underpinned by a resilient, well-diversified loan book that continues to perform well. This means we are well-positioned to continue helping our customers to invest and grow while providing the advice, insight, or support they might need to navigate increasing uncertainty, as well as investing in our business and delivering attractive returns to shareholders. We are already well into 2026, we have started the year with positive momentum and confidence in our priorities. Having already raised our ambitions, we are now delivering against them. Despite the ongoing uncertainty, we continue to see potential for long-term sustainable growth across the U.K. economy, whether that's leveraging our leading positions in social housing and infrastructure, bringing our financial planning and wealth management expertise to more customers, or supporting high-growth sectors such as technology, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing. When I stood in this room last year at the Scottish Global Investment Summit, I spoke about the importance of backing the businesses that drive investment, productivity, and job creation across the U.K. That also means helping businesses to look beyond the U.K. to trade, export, and compete internationally. These are businesses with ambition and potential to grow, operating across a wide range of sectors and regions, and often navigating moments of real complexity as they expand. We are helping turn that ambition into action, giving businesses the confidence to invest, the backing to innovate, and the support they need as they adapt and scale. Opportunity is not confined to one part of the country. There is real potential across every nation and region of the U.K., and we are well-placed to help unlock it. Against the shocks and sustained uncertainty we have seen in recent years the importance of strong, well-capitalized banks, not simply because of the capital we provide, but because of the certainty, the stability and expertise we bring, underpinned by deep, long-standing relationships in the communities we serve. As I've said before, strong economies need strong banks that support growth through economic cycles, not just when conditions are favorable. Long-term growth depends on confidence. Confidence that risks are understood and managed, that decisions are well-judged, and that banks will remain resilient in the face of change. This is not about moving faster at any cost, but about building on the foundations we have put in place to manage economic, social, and environmental impact in order to support ambition responsibly and sustainably. It is this combination of resilience, discipline, and long-term perspective that allows us to support investment, productivity, and sustainable growth across the whole of the U.K. economy whilst in delivering enduring value for our shareholders. What gives us confidence is not just the opportunity ahead, but the clarity we have about where we are choosing to focus and how we are supporting customers along the way. Our acquisition of Evelyn Partners is one example of this. At its heart, this transaction is about responding to a growing customer demand for financial planning and advice. We're entering what is likely to be a defining decade for financial advice, with people living longer and historic generational wealth transfer underway and technology changing how people save, plan, and make decisions about their long-term finances. Evelyn Partners transforms our ability to meet those changing needs, deepen long-term customer relationships, and broadens access to high-quality financial planning and investment management. As we continue through the next phase of our strategy, we are building on the strengths we have established and stepping up our ambition to make the most of the opportunities ahead. Taken together, our strategic priorities will allow us to grow with our customers, generate sustainable returns for our shareholders, and support the wider economy. The near-term pressures are very real. We are confident and optimistic about the future and about the U.K.'s long-term potential. We know that NatWest has an important role to play in helping the U.K. to navigate, challenge, and grow through our committed colleagues, trusted relationships, and a clear sense of the responsibilities to the customers and to the communities we serve. We want to be a trusted partner to them and to the U.K. whilst building sustainable value in our business and delivering for our shareholders. If we return to the question I began with, whether we are helping people, businesses, and communities to move forward with confidence, I believe the answer is clear. We have momentum. There is no room for complacency. Customer expectations continue to evolve. The pace of change across our industry remains high. What matters is that we have the foundations, the capability, and the discipline to anticipate change and respond at pace. Before I finish, I want to briefly say thank you, first, to our colleagues across NatWest Group. Their commitment, professionalism, and focus on customers underpins everything we have achieved. Also to our customers and to our shareholders for the trust you place in NatWest Group. This trust is the foundation of banking, and it is something we never take for granted. Thank you again for your continued support, and I'll now hand back to Rick in order to take your questions before we vote on the resolutions. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. We'll now turn to the formal business of the meeting. The resolutions to be put to shareholders are detailed in the notice of meeting, which formed part of the letter to shareholders circulated before today's meeting. We'll be voting on all the remaining resolutions by way of a poll in line with best practice. If you are a shareholder, proxy, or corporate representative, you are eligible to vote, you will have received a voting handset when you came into today. First, could I emphasize that if you have already submitted a proxy form and you don't wish to change the way you voted, you don't need to take any action now, as your votes will already have been recorded. If you have submitted a proxy form but wish to change the way you have voted on any resolution, you should vote using the voting handset, and your new vote will be registered. Our registrars, Computershare Investor Services, will act as scrutineers of the poll vote to ensure that this vote is carried out in a proper manner. Computershare will also be available at the end of a meeting in the foyer if you have any questions. I will now formally put to the meeting all of the resolutions contained in the notice of the meeting. The voting system will shortly become live. Please follow the on-screen instructions and press the button on your voting handset corresponding to the way in which you wish to vote. Please select each resolution from the menu. Press button one to vote in favor of the resolution, press button two to vote against it, and press button three to withhold your vote. Withholding a vote or abstaining is not classed as a vote in law and will not be counted in the calculation of whether any resolution has been passed. Once you have pressed the button of your choice, you will see a message on your voting handset confirming your vote for, against, or withheld has been received. If you think that you've pressed the wrong button or you wish to change your mind, simply press the correct button, and your original vote will then be canceled and superseded by the new one. Once you're happy with your choice, move on to the next resolution as directed on the voting handset. I will shortly take your questions, and voting will remain open throughout. I will warn you before I close the voting later in the meeting. If you would like to vote with the board's recommendations, select from the keypad menu and confirm your selection, and that will cast your vote in favor for all 25 resolutions. Following the AGM, an RNS announcement will be made to the London Stock Exchange confirming the results of the voting on all the 25 resolutions. Voting is now open. Now, I expect a number of shareholders will have questions to raise. I would be grateful if your questions could relate to the business of the AGM and be kept as succinct as possible. If you have a specific personal query about the service or product, you should raise it with the customer service desk in the foyer, which will remain open after the meeting. If you are a shareholder, proxy, or corporate representative, you are eligible to ask questions. You will have received a voting handset when you came in today, which you can use to indicate that you would like to ask a question. If you would like to ask a question, please push the microphone button on the voting handset to the left-hand side of the screen, followed by the green square button on the keypad to confirm. This will put you in the question queue. I would announce each shareholder's name in the queue 1 at a time, and you will then be invited to speak. When I call your name, it would be helpful if you're able to stand so that I can see you. Please remain in place and 1 of our ushers will bring a microphone to you. Please continue to hold the microphone close to you as you speak. If I might take a question from Mara Lilley, please. Thank you. Good morning, Chair, board of directors, and fellow shareholders. My name is Mara Lilley, and I'm here on behalf of the Church of England Pensions Board, a shareholder in NatWest. We recently announced that we're voting against the reelection of the chair, given our concerns about NatWest backtracking on its climate commitments and the concerns we now hold about the bank's governance of climate related risks. We reached out requesting a meeting, we were yet to receive a response, but had a commitment this morning to meet, so appreciate that. Thank you. Today I'd like to ask if you could clarify why, given NatWest has made sustainable and transition finance commitments, it has moved from requiring oil and gas clients to have Paris aligned transition plans to a more flexible approach under the new risk acceptance criteria. Given the bank's commitments, how does this policy change ensure that finance companies remain aligned with the U.K.'s climate goals and the Paris Agreement, and that its commitments to climate change and transition finance remain credible? Thank you. Thank you very much, Mara. Appreciate the question. Well, given the emphasis on climate earlier, maybe I'll just make a few personal comments before I start. The first thing on climate, outside of this, let me say I'm a geologist by background, so I think I can reasonably say I take a long view of these issues. Personally, you know, I've made sure, I'm fortunate I can afford it, therefore, all my properties have been fully electrified and have no fossil fuel. I'm an active investor in peat restoration. In other words, I take climate change very seriously, as does all of this board. You know, we've had to wrestle with the questions of how do we balance supporting our customers in their transition efforts with managing the risk of what is an increasingly complex policy environment. A policy environment that we have taken our lead from when we consider this from two aspects. One is the progress we've already made with our transition efforts, but also the U.K. Climate Change Committee's seventh carbon budget, which is very clear about the continuing or the diminishing role of oil and gas in the transition. When we looked at this, we were very, very committed to making sure we retain the most important and driving targets that we have. The first being to halve our, the impact of our climate finance commitments by 2030. Now, we're at 39% and there's still a long way to go. That is a big commitment. It's not an easy commitment to fulfill, but it remained. Second, to drive for net zero by 2050. Those commitments have not gone away. We've gone further than that, and we've raised the level of funding that we're willing to put into our customers transition efforts to a level of GBP 200 billion by 2030. Again, a long way to travel, given that we have only delivered so far about GBP 19 billion of that. The overwhelming balance of our investment still remains on renewables and decarbonization technologies. Right now, oil and gas financing comprises 0.6% of our total lending. You know, even when under the new slightly more flexible regime, we're very clear what we will not invest in. We're very clear we will not invest in shale oil and gas. We will not invest in oil sands. We will not finance coal gas, methane, coal liquefaction. I mean, we're very, very strict on what we can do. Even when opportunities come to us, if they're more than GBP 50 million, we have a strict governance process that really looks at the balance of any investment in oil and gas versus the commitment of those companies to the transition efforts. This is something that we have not taken lightly, but we feel it is the correct response given the increasingly complex, broadly based realities of the transition. Thank you. If I might take a question from, Jeanne Martin, please. Thank you. Good morning, members of the board. I had the opportunity to speak to Rick and Paul very briefly before the AGM. Thank you so much for saying hello. My question builds on the previous question, but as I'm asking it on behalf of a group of 19 institutional shareholders, I will stick to the statement that we've worked on together. Good morning. My name is Jeanne Martin. I'm Head of Banking Programme at ShareAction. As I said, I'm asking this question on behalf of ShareAction and 19 institutional shareholders, which I'll name at the end, and which represent $1.39 trillion in assets under management. As a major banking group in the U.K., NatWest Group plays a key role in the economy's transition to net zero, and as you referred to in your opening remarks. Back in 2021, the bank demonstrated climate leadership when it became a principal partner of COP26 and introduced a new fossil fuel policy which was celebrated by many at the time for being leading practice. This February, NatWest Group reduced the ambition of its fossil fuel policy and climate targets. The bank dropped its commitment not to finance oil and gas majors lacking a credible transition plan or failing to report their overall emissions. It also removed its commitment not to finance upstream oil and gas companies where the majority of their assets being financed are outside of the U.K., and abandoned targets covering aluminum, cement, and iron and steel, without providing a robust explanation for why the bank no longer deems these to be material. Investors are concerned by the bank's changed outlook on climate change at such a critical point in the energy transition. The transition to a cleaner economy is not going away. This creates significant risk of stranded assets, exposing lenders to potential losses, particularly from the fossil fuel sector. The European Central Bank has warned of a non-negligible increase in credit risk impairments in a disorderly transition, while the Bank of England warns impairment rates for fossil fuels could be twice as high as for other corporate portfolios. Notably, climate-related extremes across Europe caused more than twice as much damage during the period 2022 to 2023 as in the entire preceding decade. NatWest Group has reported that 3.4% of its U.K. home loans, including those provided via its private banking division, are already at high flood risk, with a further 1.3% at very high risk, with a, yeah. Investors expect clear, consistent plans for the clean energy transition that will mitigate these risks and these associated costs. The signatories of this statement would like to meet with NatWest Group this year to discuss the bank's climate strategy in light of these recent rollbacks. Will you, Rick Haythornthwaite, chair of the NatWest Group, personally agree to meet with this group of shareholders to start a dialogue within the next three months? Just to say, the statement was signed by Axiom AI, Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Cardano, Church of England Pensions Board, Ecofi, EdenTree Investment Management, Epworth Investment Management, EQ Investors, Ethos Engagement Pool International, Ethos Engagement Services clients, Ethos Foundation, Greater Manchester Pension Fund, John Ellerman Foundation, Mirova Asset Management, Nest, Ofi Invest, PFA, Rathbones Investment Management, and Strathclyde Pension Fund. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much indeed. Very clear. Let me respond to that request at the outset. First, we're very confident in our views, but we're always happy to get into dialogue on these. Yes, more than happy to meet. Let's make sure that gets in the diary soon. A few areas of clarification. One, there has been no shift in our risk appetite when it comes to credit risk, whether it applies to mortgages or business investment, et cetera. When I talked about the governance before of anything over GBP 50 million, then you can be sure that we'd be looking at the climate risk as well as the opportunity in there. I think that should be clear from the outset. You referred to the credible transition plans of businesses, which was a very crude proxy back in 2021 when we started, actually I don't think served the company or potential customers particularly well. Since that time, we've increased our ability to identify, assess, and manage these investments a far better way, and therefore we've moved away from that. We've also moved away from, you know, this science-based targets from the Science Based Targets initiative because we've begun to see that the UNEP Finance Initiative was far more applicable in this. It's still science-based, it's still rigorous in when we're looking at disciplines of transitions and exactly what can we deliver. I think the final aspect of this was when you refer to aluminum, cement, and other areas. We did shift from a world where we used to have 16 sector targets, and we've moved to 9 activity targets, much in line with the expression in the Climate Change Committee's report. It just is a far better way of demonstrating and ensuring that the investment is having a positive effect on the transition. In terms of aluminum, cement, the other areas you refer to, although they had targets in the previous sectoral area, the reason we don't have targets now is we just don't invest in them. I mean, there's very, very little investment. We don't have the in-house knowledge to invest in them, and therefore they didn't really make it into the activity targets. I hope that explains the individual points, but the bigger point is that, you know, we have the overarching targets of driving for a reduction in our finance impact by half by 2030, and that dictates really what we can and we can't do. There's just not a great deal of flexibility on that 0.6% of oil and gas. I really don't, I don't want us to get to take what sounds like a backtracking as being a major shift. These targets matter and will dictate the way we're going, as will this very strict governance regime we have internally. Thank you. If I might take a question from Kathryn Beckman, please. Hello. Hello again. My name is Kathryn Beckman, and I'm collaborating with ShareAction, but I'm not a part of ShareAction. I also appreciated talking to you earlier. Thank you. I've worked in Africa and India amongst subsistence agricultural communities. I've worked with Scottish Water on water management and pollution prevention, and for the Scottish Government's Climate Adaptation Program. In every society that I've worked in, here in Scotland and across the world, I've seen decent, ordinary people striving to provide a secure, fulfilling life for themselves and for their children. As we all know, the prospects for our children and for their children are being diminished daily as long-term climate trends degrade food security across the globe and extreme weather events drive flooding crises, agricultural failures, migration, and unrest. Like many others here, I was really dismayed to learn that NatWest has rolled back, to some extent, on its climate commitments, and that's why I joined 70 other academics and experts, leaders in the field of climate change, sustainable finance, environmental litigation, and human health in signing an open letter, the letter that I delivered to you earlier. It's addressed to you, Mr. Haythornthwaite, and to your fellow board members. We urge you once again to reverse what we see as NatWest's backtracking. Signatories of the letter include the very best in their fields, professors at leading universities, and individuals who've dedicated their careers to the study and mitigation of climate change, to climate liabilities and damage, and to human health impacts. The signatories feel that all those governing banks should act now to help drive down greenhouse gas emissions for the sake of society and for the long-term interests of your institutions. Mr. Haythornthwaite, we ask that you use your power as chair to reverse this backtracking in order to protect your customers, our society, and so on, and for the long-term interests of your institutions. My question is this: How would you like to respond to the 70 signatories of this letter? Will you act in line with both your governance and moral duties and reverse NatWest's backtracking on climate change? Thank you. Thank you very much indeed for that, and thank you for the letter, which I'll make sure is circulated to all members of the board. I guess let me make the first comment, that we didn't think in, having discussed at great length, as we talked about before this meeting, this, this slight shift in where we're going, at no time did we believe we were breaching any moral or fiduciary duty. We would not have done it otherwise. Just to take the point for every one of your 70 signatories, there are equally voices saying that we have to manage the reality of the transition here and make sure that we can channel financing to our customers' transitional projects that are there. As said earlier, that an eminent voice in all of this, the Climate Change Committee, have made it clear that there's a balance to be managed in all of this. This is the difficult question we're all managing, the trade-offs out there. We feel that we found a pragmatic middle road where we will still, through the governance processes as I mentioned, be really strict on where their money will go, and we'll hear the voices of the 70 as we go through that, along with many of the other voices, and make those tough decisions that all of us are facing today with the next generation in mind. Your opening comments, we really take to heart. We have to make a change here. We have to drive transition as fast as we can. At the same time, we've got to recognize there's some practical measures we've got to get over to accelerate that. All of us want to move in the same direction. Maybe we have different view about how that can be best achieved, but all views are respected and listened to by this Board. I can promise you that. Thank you. Thank you. If I could, therefore invite Michelle Smith to speak, please. Thank you. Good afternoon, board. I'll try and speak slowly so you can understand my accent. My name is Michelle Smith, and I'm the lead industrial organizer for Unite the Union for the workers across the finance sector. I've been doing that work for four years now, and I'm incredibly proud to work with the workers across this sector. Unite the Union represents tens of thousands of finance workers across the sector. Many of our members are employed by organizations such as your own, which have reported year-on-year leaps in profits well in excess of the rate of inflation. They've seen shareholder dividends and executive remuneration packages increase at inflation busting levels, while their own pay increases at rates below RPI, meaning that each year they are worse off than the year before. We have got members visiting food banks and having to make choices between eating and heating. These are people that work for your organization. The latest annual report shows that the CEO total remuneration increased by 33% over the past year. Payouts to shareholders through dividends and buybacks in the last year were up by over a quarter, totaling almost GBP 3 billion. The amount spent on employee remuneration only increased by 2.82%. Do you think it's acceptable or moral for profits and the CEO and executive remuneration to increase at above inflation rates, yet the ordinary working people who do the work, who speak to customers and keep the tills ringing see their take-home income fall in real terms year-on-year? Can you commit to moving forward that the board will allocate enough money to the relevant business divisions so that all of your workers can receive decent and proportionate pay rises in 2027? Michelle, thank you for your question there. First, let me commend you and thank you for the constructive way in which you've been conducting talks with the company. I know there's been a long process in there, and they're continuing. In respect to your collective bargaining priorities and the processes, I won't go too deeply into that. We are keen to find a package and an agreement with the employers, negotiated along with you, that is, meets the two key criteria that we need, which is competitiveness and fairness, and that we need to look at. The same criteria, in particular competitiveness, obviously is a factor when we think about our senior executives' pay. As you know, it's put to shareholders vote on it, and we have to do that in a competitive environment. We hope that we will shortly be able to come to an agreement with the union and with our teams. We want to be able to give our colleagues a fair reward for the very considerable effort they put in the company. You know, we gotta balance that with the long-term sustainability of the business, but you know that. You were in that discussion with us. Hopefully, we can conclude that soon. Thank you. If I could invite Simon Godfrey please. Simon Godfrey, no surprises, I'm also an organizer with Unite the Union working across the finance sector. Again, in a similar vein, year on year, we see executives, boards, and directors across the finance sector be awarded ever-increasing remuneration packages well in excess of RPI. In the past couple of years, payouts that directors get under the bonus incentive schemes have increased significantly. You know, NatWest CEO to median pay ratio is around 117 to 1. You know, for the lowest quartile within your, within your workforce here, it's 175 to 1. UK Corporate Governance Code says that boards should take account of wider circumstances in the company when making decisions about executive pay. At the same time that your executive payouts and remuneration packages are increasing, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of ordinary workers across the finance sector, not just within NatWest, but across the whole of the finance sector, are seeing their pay pots which, from which their pay rises are based, reduce, both in real terms and in terms of overall company profit. You mentioned importance of sustainability. That is our members. We want our members to, you know, to be sustainable, but they also have to be able to afford to live. You know, it was mentioned earlier on about making it easier for customers, making it easier for your employees. How easy is it for your employees when they are seeing their pay drop in real terms when the companies they are working for, the profits are increasing year on year? If directors and yourselves are being offered the chance to earn significantly more, and the shareholders are being given larger payouts, and the figure 51% I think was mentioned earlier on, apologies if I picked that wrong, then this approach needs to be applied to the workforce as well. Those who are keeping the company running, who are speaking to your customers need, should not be last in line when it comes to getting paid. Again, can you commit moving forward that the board will allocate enough money to the relevant business divisions so that your pay pots increase so that workers can receive proportionate pay rises in 2027 that doesn't see them worse off next year than they are this year? Thank you. Thank you very much again for your question. The one thing I just want to put straight on that, though it might surprise you, but when we as a board and when senior executives think through the salary pay rises, we have a clear eye on what has the main workforce has received, and we do not seek to exceed it. I just want to correct you on that fact. The second thing I hope when we get into finalization of discussions, that I very much hope that everyone can come out of these discussions saying this was a fair reward, really being for those people who put so much into this company. That actually, our employees have the opportunity to share in the success of this company in a number of ways, not just salary. They have the opportunity, everyone has the opportunity to share in the success through share schemes, such as Sharing in Success. A very significant majority of the company have the opportunity to share in success through the variable pay schemes. I hope by looking at these things in the round, that really we do start to, you know, have remuneration that is seen to be progressive amongst our employees. Of course, the other thing we focus on here is that we really need the U.K. to grow as well. We need everyone to grow, and we need real wages to follow with it. As another focus of the board and the company to do whatever we can to drive the broader, the macroeconomic position here, which would raise hopefully a rising tide in which all boats will rise here. I think all of us need to work on that. Thank you. If I could invite Gillian Williamson, please. Yeah. Would you mind if I sat down when I speak? Rick Haythornthwaite, would you mind if I sat down when I speak? Please, no. Please. Thank you very much. I would also like to say, with the Unite lady who spoke, I need some help, and I'm not being. I have been a Unite member, and I'm not getting any at all. Could I speak to you afterwards? Of course. Of course. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I have traveled from London especially for this. Unwise, I'm sure I will be medically advised, as I need assistance over three matters. I worked for the bank all my working life and have three issues that need resolution. One, employment. Two, insurance. Three, shareholders payout, and most especially mine, and information which was shared with others who equally lost out. Most especially the words given by the person appointed by Ross McEwan, which has been totally ignored. There is so much more you seem not to realize or know. May I say, and maybe the shareholders will agree, that we find the press releases and the conduct of the board are far more defined, dignified, and genteel than before, and it was because of that that I wrote to both of you independently, asking to be seen so the full state of the situations could be reviewed. The response from the case manager was so dismissive. I think he may be confusing apathy with empathy. While suffering from post-traumatic stress, people sometimes cannot manage to define and hold polite communication, and I've had to try to do a lot. But hearing him on the phone, I accepted that it would not work at all, as a quiet discussion is needed to get resolution, which does not start with a bark. Please, would you get someone who is reasonable and kind to help me, and preferably reasonably knowledgeable in all aspects of the three cases I'm trying to get some help with, as these problems are severe, extremely severe, and you do not seem to realize the situation. Certainly, you do not have all the facts. I cannot deal with writing court papers for two cases because you never talk to me while explaining things to this person who has not even found the facts available to you. It is too much. My sight is very poor. The pain I have is excessive. I have asked for a meeting to explain, as detailed responses cause pain to my sight and it deteriorates. While pain in the body is tired, but the mental pain you cause with what you have done to me. From one of the senior people I know, I was advised to ask for someone who would know who they know would help if they could. I tried, and back he came again. I only had an email from the person advised as helpful, who apparently had moved on and cannot help. I regret my health issues, finding letters better, and putting all together for him when he was so dismissive, and you are challenging me with several court appearances, is really lacking in feeling and pushing me beyond my health, as well as being hardly fair. My illnesses have been defined and listed to a solicitor acting for you. I regret I need to get matters sorted. Your representation does not even do his research fully. He is dismissive and thinks he has it all, well, his research is lacking a lot, and some facts seem to be not known. Please can I speak to someone with understanding, as my illnesses preclude a lot, and the situation is and my illnesses were caused by the bank and reaction to events and situations. I can't do all required. It is not physically possible, especially as dismissed as all said in a letter twice. I called the London flagship head office in the hope of making an appointment and could not. The head of reception coming out after me trying to make contact for 3 hours as the person was not in, and I failed to make an appointment. Also he failed to me allow me to use the facilities before he left, saying I could go to Costa Coffee, which was inhumane, as the English National Opera said and assisted. Really, is this the new and helpful bank who barred help for the people? Mrs. Williamson, could I maybe ask you to hurry yourself to the end of this? Thank you. Can I go on a little bit longer or not? You can go on a little bit longer, but if I could, I could just politely ask you to bring it to a conclusion. Yes, which I'm cutting short. Could we have AGMs, please, down in London? As many would find it easier, and this place haunts many, but we come. I was approached years ago by a reporter, but I do not like my affairs in public, and to expose the processes which has damaged my life. As you said, the country needs a good bank, and I entirely agree. We were. You were either unaware or not prepared to see what I'm trying to do, which needs correction. Please will you allow a loved someone to see me, as I do not wish to make myself more unwell trying to jump through the legal loopholes you're putting me through. You're forcing me to do too much with absolute lack of understanding, and please can you stop? I will try and proceed if I may. About my employment, I tried to speak to people in the bank and so did the bodies governing the employment tribunal, and they refused to speak to them or me. I ended up in a tribunal with people from RBS supporting a solicitor who they had to take over from, as the telephone lines were impossible. You must have a record of events. He got his papers in late, which the judge forgave instantly. Although mine were in on time, it was apparently mine were not read, as the rules said I had to present a further copy to court, and he kept flicking through and commenting on them. He also relied on a wrong case, which again was forgiven, and he suggested very politely that I speak first, making me not able to reply. I had handed in my papers. They should have been read. Now I know they were not. He read his papers as best he could, and everyone was compassionate for him, but he was obviously aware that judges skip reading papers. If his suggestion I went first had not applied, I would have read as he chose to do and tried to do. Of course, then I did not expect help, but I do believe it was his first attendance in court. Mrs. Williamson, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to finish now, please, for the courtesy of others. Sorry? Thank you very much. Look, first of all, thank you. I know you were an employee with the company once, and thank you for your service then. You know, one can only have empathy for the situation. One can only apologize for what you've gone through. I know this case has been prosecuted many times. As I understand it, and I've gone back over this, that, you know, there's been a legal process, and it was settled. You know, to the extent you were not a claimant in the proceedings, you didn't issue a claim before 2014, that you're time-barred from this. I'm afraid even however sorry one might feel about this. Mr. Haythornthwaite ... that's the situation. Unless there's new argument, new evidence in all of this, then I'm afraid we need to fall back on the position we've always taken this. I'm sorry. I feel deeply sorry for what you've gone through, but I'm afraid that's our position. There are other things as well. Thank you. Mr. Haythornthwaite. I do believe there is date of knowledge. Because I was so traumatized, the post-traumatic stress didn't come out. Mrs Williamson, I'm sorry, we do have to move on. I'm gonna ask Kelly Shields, please, to ask whatever questions she might have. Thank you. Hello, members of the board. My name is Kelly Shields, senior campaign manager at ShareAction. I'm asking this question on behalf of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, Rainforest Action Network, and ShareAction. Based on financial data from Refinitiv, which ShareAction accessed this April, NatWest Group has acted as a bookrunner on a project finance loan to the Rio Grande LNG Train 4 LLC on the 9th of September 2025, and to the Rio Grande LNG Train 5 LLC on the 16th of October. The average loan per bookrunner on each of these deals was $132 million and $138 million respectively. These projects carry significant legal risk given that Rio Grande LNG projects have faced lawsuits, most notably in December 2025 when Texan nonprofits and the City of Port Isabel sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approving the LNG terminal and the Rio Bravo Pipeline. This is on account of the significant health risk that carcinogenic pollutants from the project could cause to impoverished Latin and Indigenous communities, as well as the impact on the climate. Rio Grande LNG is being built adjacent to land that is sacred to the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe, and Enbridge's Rio Bravo Pipeline would intersect land that the tribe owns. The tribe says that companies involved in these projects have not respected the rights of communities' free, prior, and informed consent. In ShareAction's latest banking benchmark, In Debt to the Planet, NatWest ranked joint last out of Europe's 25 largest banks on its approach to safeguarding Indigenous peoples' rights. Human rights are part of NatWest Group's due diligence process, the bank fails to go beyond the Equator Principles by unequivocally requiring free, prior, and informed consent for all project and general corporate purpose financing. This is concerning in light of the bank now financing projects which are allegedly harming Indigenous peoples' rights. I have two questions for the board. How does NatWest, historically a U.K. bank with more of a domestic focus, justify financing such a risky and harmful LNG project in Texas, one that BNP Paribas, Société Générale, and Crédit Agricole have severed their relationships with due to growing human rights and legal risks? Over what timeline will NatWest adopt ShareAction's recommendations to improve its approach to safeguarding Indigenous peoples' rights? Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. The first thing I would say just to enlighten you as to why we might invest something like that. We operate something that we call the UK nexus, which is companies that are seeking to operate into the U.K. and operate out of the U.K. Those companies, occasionally, we can't just be fair weather providers to these customers, that sometimes they wish to involve us in broader projects. That's how we end up in different projects around the world. We're not gonna comment on individual projects. You know, you mentioned the Equator Principles, we assess the financing of these projects through the lens of the Equator Principles. I think, you know, if there's particular high risk, it is subject to further governance, and all projects are. Now, we covered this in our human rights report in June 2025. What I really suggest is that our group sustainability team, who you saw earlier, they're outside. I'll pick this up with them to further engagement on this. In the end, we fall back on the Equator Principles as being a very important framework for assessment of these financing opportunities. How would you look to ensure that companies that you're financing are adhering to FPIC? The Equator Principles only covers project financing, so it's a small amount. In the governance, in the recognition of the risk of the client, in terms of its behavior. It's not just the project. I have no doubt in that there will be discussion of those particular issues as part of the governance process. It would trigger a risk target and be considered within the overall risk appetite for the clients that we would work with and the projects we invest in. Please do pick it up with the sustainability team if you want to get into more detail. Okay. Thank you very much. Then, Mr. Turnbull, Mark Turnbull. Sorry. Hello. Maybe try and lighten it a little bit. Well, first of all, what I've said to Alison in the gift note, RBS, I'll be speaking on microphone. Any questions, she said, "Can we have a branch at East Kilbride?" As if the board will listen to me. I thought you did very well with the protests. Did you notice they said you're all very clever people? Never said that to me. Right. Anyhow, onto me. In July, I woke up in my van in Narin Beach in Donegal. I got the news that George Munro had died, a great friend of mine. He was in Lybster, RBS branch, which is probably the best branch in the whole of Scotland, in my opinion, because the staff would go to his house and he can move this, move that. Right. George in the end gambled a couple of houses. Before that, his mother was gonna leave all her money to his wife, and mother was on her deathbed in the Braes. First of all, George was in a house called Ornum, which is Munro spelled backwards. The second house he had was the Braes. His mother is on her deathbed. They've got the baby intercom to listen to her breathing. George is saying, "Mother, give that bitch nothing. I can handle the money." He forgot the intercom was on. It was a touch unfortunate. The wife got the money anyway. Right. Over the years, I've been a RBS account holder for about 55 years. I've been a shareholder for about 20, 22. I remember being here one day for a man said, "This is a dead bank," so I gotta thank Gordon Brown for keeping us alive as a business to allow all these people to have those questions. I'll get to the point in a minute. Let's see what I've got here. Right. What's left? I'm looking forward to the point. Yeah. I'll move it. I'll move it. Right. You and Paul are great communicators. I couldn't get anywhere with Alison Rose. They're all be there. My view is I'm a RBS fan first and foremost, and I would like the name RBS back. As a tribute to George Munro, and Paul, you can tell your dad this. In my view, George Munro would say, "Give the bitch nothing. We can handle the name Royal Bank of Scotland." I'd love the name, and I'll keep asking this question for you, new executive people on the board over the years. Thank you. Can we ever have RBS back? Well, let me tell you. It will always be the Royal Bank here. May well be NatWest below, but it is, it's Royal Bank here, and we're going to enjoy our 300th anniversary next year, and we'll make something of it. Thank you for being a shareholder for so long. Thank you for the questions. If you have pre-registered a question outside the auditorium but haven't yet asked, then this is your final opportunity. Please, can you press that microphone button on your handset next to you, with the green square button. Are there any other questions? In that case, I declare this meeting closed, and thank you very much indeed for your attendance. Very much appreciated. Thank you.