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NatWest Group plc is a UK banking and financial services company serving more than 19 million customers, with operations covering retail, commercial and private banking markets.
The company has a large high street presence, including NatWest. Other brands include Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Ulster Bank. The Coutts division provides private banking and wealth management, while Holt’s is the bank of the British Armed Forces. Lombard is the UK’s largest provider of asset finance.
Note that the past success of NatWest is no indicator of future performance and anyone thinking about investing should consider researching the company more thoroughly to better understand its potential benefits and risks.
Investing puts your capital at risk, and investors should be prepared to lose some or all of their investment.
How to buy NatWest shares
With this in mind, and once you’ve satisfied yourself regarding the reasons for buying shares in a particular company, there are several steps to take:
1) Open an account
Whether you’re a seasoned trader or new to stock market-based investments, if you want to buy shares in NatWest you’ll need an account with a broker.
Stockbroking is competitive and services for DIY investors range from online investing platforms to investment trading apps.
Before opening an account, remember it is important to:
- Keep your ultimate financial goals in mind
- Be prepared to ride out stock market ups and downs
- Aim to keep trading costs to a minimum
- Keep in mind that share investing and trading can prompt tax charges.
Before buying any shares, ask yourself these questions:
- Should I take professional advice?
- Am I comfortable with the level of risk?
- What’s my investing budget?
- Can I afford to lose money?
- Do I understand the company in which I’m looking to invest?
- Am I protected if my platform provider/advisor goes out of business?
2) Know where NatWest is traded
The stock market ticker for NatWest is NWG. The company is traded on the London Stock Exchange which is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4.30pm. NatWest is a component of the FTSE 100 stock index of leading UK companies.
It should be possible to buy NatWest shares through all UK-based brokerage accounts.
3) Do your research
To find out more about NatWest, visit its investor relations page.
4) What is your investing strategy?
People tend to invest either with a lump sum or via smaller, regular amounts.
The latter method is often referred to as ‘pound cost averaging’, which may help you pay less per share on average over time. Rather than waiting to build up a lump sum, it means an investor’s money is put to use straightaway.
5) Place an order
Once you’re ready to buy shares in NatWest, log in to your investing account or trading app. Type in the ticker symbol (NWG) and the number of shares you want to buy, or the amount you want to invest.
6) Review NatWest’s performance
Whether your share portfolio is crammed full of companies or holds only a handful of stocks, we believe it’s vital you review how each component is performing on a regular basis: monthly, quarterly, annually, or whichever frequency is appropriate.
Doing this enables you to review performance and ask if any adjustments to your holdings are required.
NatWest share price
The graph below displays the past performance of NatWest Group. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
25 July 2025: H1 2025 results
- Total income at £7.98bn, up 11.9% year-on-year
- Profit before tax at £3.58bn, up 18.4% year-on-year
- Earnings per share of 30.9 pence, up 6.7 pence year-on-year
- Interim dividend of 9.5 pence per share, up 58% year-on-year
- Share buyback programme of £750m planned for second half of 2025.
How to sell NatWest shares
If you want to sell your holdings, log in to your investing platform, enter the ticker symbol and select the amount you want to sell.
Note that if you’ve made a substantial profit, you may be liable to pay capital gains tax (CGT) when you come to sell your holdings, especially if your shares were held outside of a tax-exempt wrapper such as an Individual Savings Account or Self-Invested Personal Pension.
The CGT tax-free allowance for the tax year 2025-26 is £3,000. Find out more about CGT, rates and allowances.
Tax treatment depends on one’s individual circumstances and may be subject to future change. The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and is not intended to be, nor does it constitute, any form of tax advice.
Why consider owning shares?
Before buying shares in any company ask yourself why you’re taking that decision. Does the company have potential prospects with a share price that could go from strength to strength?
Or is there takeover talk in the offing that could potentially drive up a company’s share price?
Maybe the company you’ve identified is on a recovery mission and its share price is starting to recover from previous lows.
How to invest in NatWest via a fund
Investing directly in individual stocks can be an absorbing and, hopefully, profitable experience. It may also qualify you for shareholder perks specific to the company in question.
However, investing directly in individual companies can leave you more vulnerable to stock market volatility as well as unforeseen swings in share prices.
That’s why, financial experts recommend that most people invest in a diversified mix of asset classes and investment funds that hold hundreds, if not thousands, of company shares.
As a large UK multinational operation that’s part of the FTSE 100 index, NatWest is found in many UK equity, index tracker and exchange-traded funds.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does NatWest pay a dividend?
Dividends are a distribution, usually in cash, generally paid by a company to its shareholders half-yearly. Payments are usually met out of that year’s earnings.
Companies aren’t obliged to pay a dividend, but may choose to do so for a number of reasons – as a gesture of a company’s support to its financial backer, for example, or as an incentive to shareholders to continue owning shares.
The interim dividend for the first half of 2025 is 9.5 pence per share.
Be mindful, past dividends do not guarantee future dividend payouts.
Can I buy NatWest with a debit card?
Yes, in the sense that you’d need to add funds using a form of method of payment.
One option is using an appointed card to an existing online investing service or trading app before making the share trade from there.
What does it cost to trade NatWest shares?
This will vary depending on the investment service/platform that an investor is using to trade.
Broadly speaking, there are three main types of fees. First is a share trading fee that investors are charged by a platform each time they buy or sell shares.
Note that some platforms charge no fee for this activity, while others may charge a flat fee of typically between £6 and £12.
Second comes the platform fee which is typically levied as an annual fee charged for holding shares on a particular investing platform. Again, some providers impose no fee, others charge a flat fee, and some services charge a percentage, typically 0.25% to.0.45% per annum of the underlying portfolio.
If you buy or sell shares denominated in a foreign currency, nearly all of the investing platforms charge a foreign exchange fee. Again, this will vary among providers, but tends to sit in a range from 0.5% to 1.5% per transaction.
Investments in a currency other than sterling are exposed to currency exchange risk. Currency exchange rates are constantly changing which may affect the value of the investment in sterling terms.
You could lose money in sterling even if the stock price rises in the currency of origin. Stocks listed on overseas exchanges may be subject to additional dealing and exchange rate charges, and may have other tax implications, and may not provide the same, or any, regulatory protection as in the UK.
