NatWest Group

Universal bank · Edinburgh, United Kingdom

NatWest Group is the Edinburgh-based holding company for NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank and Coutts. It is a UK domestic bank: customer deposits were 448 billion pounds and loans 410 billion pounds at June 2026, almost all in Britain. For businesses it runs high-street business current accounts with two years of free banking for start-ups, the free app-only Mettle account, Tyl card acquiring and NatWest Boxed embedded finance. It has no retail or SME banking outside the UK.

Legal name: NatWest Group plc
Regulated by: PRA/FCA (UK), DNB/ECB (NatWest Markets N.V., Netherlands), SEC/FINRA (NatWest Markets Securities Inc., US)
Licence confirmed: yes, on a regulator's own list
Established: 1968
Website: www.natwestgroup.com

Scores, 0 to 10

10.0United Kingdom

UK clearing bank with Faster Payments, CHAPS and BACS and mainstream business current accounts; the group is based in Edinburgh and serves the UK market almost exclusively. · source

8.5Financial strength & stability

CET1 13.2% at June 2026, NatWest Group plc rated A3/A-/A+ and National Westminster Bank Plc A1/A+/AA; no longer a G-SIB after removal from the FSB list. · source

7.0Business cards (Visa, Mastercard)

NatWest offers a Mastercard business debit card with no annual fee, a Business Credit Card with the GBP 30 fee waived above GBP 6,000 annual spend, OneCard with ClearSpend real-time controls, and virtual cards for companies above GBP 25m turnover. · source

6.5Lowest fees

The Business Current Account has no monthly charge and Start-up customers get two years of free everyday banking. The Standard Charges that follow are 35p per automated payment, 95p per 100 pounds of cash and 95p per manual item, and for accounts opened from 20 April 2026 free banking stops if cash deposits pass 200,000 pounds in 12 months. · source

6.5Fintech companies that need a partner bank

NatWest Boxed provides banking-as-a-service to Sainsbury's, the AA and Saga, and the bank says it provides core banking to selected brokers and crypto-enabled payment providers. · source

6.5Online businesses: e-commerce and SaaS

Tyl by NatWest takes in-store, online and phone payments for business account holders, and Mettle supports invoicing, but Mettle has no international payments. Every NatWest business account includes FreeAgent accounting software at no charge, and the digital-only Mettle account has no transaction fees, but no USD receiving account is offered to UK firms. · source

6.5Startups & VC-backed companies

Dedicated Start-up account with two years free banking, free FreeAgent and free growth programmes for firms trading under one year with turnover under 1 million pounds. · source

6.0Fast digital onboarding

Online application for UK-registered businesses with UK-resident directors; Mettle reviewers report waits of weeks and unexplained rejections during account opening. · source

6.0Trade, manufacturing & import-export

Trade finance, invoice finance and FX hedging are offered through NatWest Corporates and NatWest Markets, but the bank is not a global trade bank and was removed from the FSB G-SIB list. · source

5.0Cross-border payments, FX and multi-currency accounts

Business Currency Reserve accounts and NatWest Markets FX cover major currencies, but international payments are excluded from free-banking offers and margins are not published. Bankline and Bankline Direct offer SWIFTNet FileAct and Fin connectivity plus currency accounts, but the network is UK-centred with no cash pooling across 30 countries. · source

5.0Off-ramp: crypto to fiat in a business account

NatWest's business page states there is no block or limit on payments made to the customer, so exchange proceeds come in, but the bank has said it has no appetite for businesses that mainly transact in crypto and publishes no source-of-funds process. · source

4.5Best interest on business balances

Business Reserve instant access pays 0.85% AER on balances under 1 million pounds rising to 1.46% above 10 million, and the 95-day notice account pays 2.50% AER. · source

4.5Customer satisfaction

NatWest scores 1.4 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 8,536 reviews while Mettle scores 4.6 from 6,465; the NatWest iPhone app was rated 4.8 from 456,700 reviews in a 2024 comparison. · source

4.5Foreign-owned & non-resident companies

NatWest's Business Current Account requires at least one person on the application to be a UK resident and the business to be registered for UK income or corporation tax. · source

3.5Europe (EU, EEA, Switzerland)

EU presence is limited to NatWest Markets N.V., a Dutch-licensed markets subsidiary rated A1/A/AA- that serves institutional and corporate clients, with no EU business current accounts. · source

3.0United States

US presence is NatWest Markets Securities Inc., a FINRA-registered broker-dealer in Stamford for rates, currencies and financing, with no US bank charter or business accounts. · source

3.0High-risk verticals (iGaming, cannabis, adult, forex)

The eligibility page for NatWest's Mettle account lists adult entertainment or services, gambling, money service businesses and virtual currency or cryptocurrency as activities it does not support. · source

2.5Crypto-friendly bank

NatWest will not provide business accounts to companies accepting crypto and limits retail exchange transfers to 1,000 pounds per day, although it says it serves selected brokers and crypto-enabled payment providers. · source

2.5On-ramp: buy crypto with fiat

Since 16 March 2023 NatWest blocks or limits Faster Payments and debit card payments to crypto exchanges to GBP 1,000 a day and GBP 5,000 in any 30 days, and its business security page applies this to business accounts; credit and charge card crypto purchases are blocked since February 2018. · source

2.0Stablecoins (USDC, USDT and others)

NatWest is in the UK Finance tokenised sterling deposit pilot, which the Treasury folded into its digital markets plan on 8 September 2026, but it is not among the 21 institutions in the September 2026 bank stablecoin venture and offers no stablecoin service to clients. · source

1.0Crypto wallet and custody for a business

NatWest offers no crypto wallet or custody to business or personal clients; its business crypto page covers only fraud limits and blocks, checked September 2026. · source

1.0Accept crypto payments

NatWest's Tyl card acquiring has no crypto acceptance, and in April 2021 its risk committee head said the bank has no appetite for clients whose main business is transacting in crypto, though a spokesperson said business customers may accept crypto under specific conditions. · source

1.0Bitcoin

NatWest sells no bitcoin, custody or bitcoin products to business clients, checked September 2026. · source

1.0Ethereum

NatWest sells no ether, custody or staking to business clients, checked September 2026. · source

Sources

Built on public information and the BankStore team's own aggregated experience; no confidential client or partner data. Bank Index and BankStore are not banks. This is information, not financial advice.