Bearbull's alarm clock wasn’t set early for NatWest’s (NWG) results on 16 February.
Sure, the Farage de-banking set-to and subsequent CEO harakiri have lately added spice to this usually humdrum retail banking story. But beyond that drama, it’s all been a bit more prosaic. Stil, the optimist who cracked open the RNS feed at 7am will have been rewarded with news of the company's strongest pre-tax profits since the financial crisis.
Although its loan-to-deposit ratio crept higher, NatWest’s net interest margin climbed, and a final dividend of 11.5p pushed the full-year payout 26 per cent higher. On balance, not bad. Although, in this case, somewhat moot.