The NatWest boss, Paul Thwaite, has clinched the largest payout for a chief executive of the banking group since his disgraced predecessor Fred Goodwin took home £7.7m in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis.
Thwaite, who guided the once-bailed-out lender to full private ownership last year, was given a £6.6m pay package for 2025, with the boardroom lifting his overall pay by a third.
That sum surpassed the £5.2m received by his predecessor Alison Rose for 2022, who Thwaite replaced in 2023 after the group’s row with Nigel Farage over what the Reform leader claimed was discriminatory closure of his accounts. It means Thwaite is the highest-earning chief executive of the group since 2006, when the bank – then known as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) – was in its pre-financial crisis heyday.
Goodwin’s excesses were later blamed for bringing the bank to its knees, requiring a £45bn government bailout during the banking crisis in 2008.
Asked whether it was appropriate for his pay to be returning to pre-financial crisis levels, Thwaite told reporters he was very proud of what NatWest had achieved over the last couple of years.
“The first thing I’d say is that I recognise that senior roles in financial services, in banking and actually in wider professional services, are very well paid. I appreciate that. I know that; I believe I’m very fortunate, and it would be churlish for me to suggest otherwise.”
He added: “The exec pay policy is set by the board. It’s voted on by shareholders. There’s obviously a very close link between reward and performance. And it goes up and down depending upon performance. So that’s all I’ll say on that, really.”
Thwaite’s earning power was not only bolstered by the bank’s privatisation but also by a decision last year to lift the banker bonus cap that had limited his bonus to twice his salary. It followed a UK-wide reversal of the cap as part of post-Brexit powers that politicians and regulators hoped would lure more high-earning bankers to Britain’s shores.
On top of his £1.1m salary, a “fixed share allowance” of £1.1m, and pension payments and other benefits, Thwaite was given a £4m bonus. That included an annual bonus of £1.5m, up 68% from £890m a year earlier. The rest was linked to a long-term bonus scheme, which paid out £2.5m for 2025.
The jump came as NatWest reported £7.7bn in pre-tax profits for 2025, a 24% rise on the £6.2bn reported a year earlier.
The lender also boosted payouts for its top bankers, lifting the group bonus pool by 10.8% to £495m, according to its newly released annual report on Friday. That is the highest level since 2013, when the financial crisis bonus pool still hovered at about £576m.
NatWest’s annual report also disclosed that 89 “material risk takers” earned more than €1m (£870,000) in 2025.
The bank said 20 of these earned between €1.5m and €2m, while 14 earned more than €2m euros. The lender employed 59,000 permanent staff in total at the end of last year.
NatWest bankers will be in good company, though, with their counterparts at Barclays also having been given the largest bonus pool in 12 years. The rival bank revealed that its bankers would be sharing £2.2bn worth of bonuses for the 2025 financial year, marking a 15% increase from £1.9bn last year. It comes after Barclays revealed a 13% rise in full-year profits on Tuesday to £9.1bn.
On Wall Street, Citgroup announced overnight that its chief executive, Jane Fraser, had been paid $42m (£31m) for 2025. That included a $1.5m base salary and a $40.5m bonus, helping push her overall pay up by almost a quarter from $34.5m a year earlier.
