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The FTSE 100 Index was little changed this week as investors assessed the escalating UK-Iran crisis, the ongoing US earnings season, and a series of key UK economic releases. Market participants digested the latest jobs, inflation, and retail sales data for July, all of which could influence the Bank of England's next policy decision.
Citi has told investors that concerns over UK politics and Chinese regulation weighing on the country's banks should now begin to ease, allowing attention to return to what it calls impressive return trajectories. In its summer 2026 big-picture note on the sector, the bank said it remained constructive on UK bank fundamentals, citing net interest margin expansion and high-volume growth.
This article is part of our monthly series where we highlight five large-cap, relatively safe, dividend-paying companies offering significant discounts to their historical norms. We go over our filtering process to select just five conservative DGI stocks from more than 7,500 companies that are traded on U.S. exchanges, including OTC networks. In addition to the primary list that yields 4.1%, we present two other groups of five DGI stocks each, from moderate to high yields of up to 8%.
Income investors hunting for yield have to look past headline sectors and focus on payout durability.
NatWest Group Plc earns a Buy rating, targeting a 26.9% upside to $22.54, driven by agentic AI integration and the Evelyn Partners acquisition. Agentic AI slashes software deployment from 6 weeks to 6 hours, enabling hyper-scaling of NWG's £127 billion AUMA wealth management platform and supporting a sub-45% C/I ratio. Wealth management fee income, expected to rise 20% post-Evelyn, supports >18% RoTE and justifies potential multiple expansion as NWG pivots from net interest income.
The FTSE 100 Index remained in a tight range in June as investors focused on the UK's political situation, Bank of England (BoE) action, and the US and Iran situation. It rose to 10,500 points, up by 3.70% from its lowest level in June.
NatWest Group PLC (LSE:NWG) said it expects to lift fee income by about 20%, improve returns and increase its exposure to the UK wealth market after completing its £2.7 billion acquisition of Evelyn Partners. The FTSE 100 lender said the deal completed on 30 June, creating the UK's biggest private banking and wealth management business.
NatWest CEO Paul Thwaite said artificial intelligence (AI) is going to change the bank's workforce, though he didn't say whether it would reduce the size, Finextra reported Friday (June 19).
SEC filings for NWG aren't indexed yet — common for recently launched funds. Browse the issuer's filings on SEC EDGAR directly.