NatWest Pays $3.6 Billion for Wealth Manager Evelyn Partners

U.K. banking giant NatWest is acquiring wealth manager Evelyn Partners for 2.7 billion pounds (approximately $3.6 billion).

Purchasing Evelyn Partners from private equity operations Permira and Warburg Pincus will allow NatWest to bolster its savings and investment business, the bank said in a Monday (Feb. 9) news release.

“At a time when the benefits of saving and investing are increasingly part of the national conversation, we can help customers to make more of their money through a broader range of services, as well as helping to drive growth and investment across the economy,” NatWest CEO Paul Thwaite said in the announcement.

A report on the deal from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) notes that it is happening as European banks increasingly look to diversify their revenue sources by bolstering their fee-generating business and depend less on income from lending as central banks reduce rates.

“Although we consider this to be a bolt-on transaction, it would be transformational, filling the gap [NatWest] has in its affluent wealth offering,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Benjamin Toms said, per the WSJ.

The report added that NatWest has traditionally focused on high net-worth customers with Coutts, a centuries-old private bank that counted Queen Elizabeth II among its clients.

In other wealth management news, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote recently about efforts by FinTechs to help their customers develop better habits and accumulate more assets as people live longer.

“Instead of trying to ‘fix’ retirement in someone’s 50s, kid- and teen-focused platforms turn saving, investing and risk into lived experiences from childhood,” that report said.

“Supervised debit and investment accounts let kids earn, save and invest early, while custodial investing and low-fee robo-advisors extend that on-ramp into young adulthood with diversified portfolios and disciplined contributions.”

Added into the mix is AI, the report added, becoming “the always-on financial coach most households lack,” and using data to come up with personalized reminders that help people save more, adjust risk and remain on track as life changes. Together, early experiential investing and AI-driven guidance can help build the financial infrastructure to make longer lifespans financially viable.

“In that sense, AI’s most profound financial impact may not be the automation of back‑office tasks or the creation of new investment strategies, as important as those are,” Webster wrote. “It may be this silent reset of intergenerational expectations.”