NatWest eyes loan risk transfers to spur new lending and protect dividends

NatWest (NWG.L), opens new tab wants to bolster its lending firepower. To do so it plans to cut deals with investors to offload some of its loan risk, to make its capital go further and preserve dividends, executives told Reuters.

The domestically-focused bank, still 19% taxpayer-owned since its 2008 bailout, joins a wave of peers seeking to shed some loan exposure using private deals with investors that can trim regulatory demands for capital by hundreds of millions of pounds.