{"id":111487,"date":"2026-08-26T13:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/111487\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T13:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T13:13:07","slug":"natwest-named-top-pick-by-citi-as-european-banking-bull-run-nears-final-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/111487\/","title":{"rendered":"NatWest named top pick by Citi as European banking bull run nears final leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NatWest<\/a> NatWest named top pick by Citi as European banking bull run nears final leg Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock <\/p>\n

NatWest Group PLC (LSE:NWG)<\/a> was named a top pick by Citi on Wednesday, even as the investment bank cautioned that the current European banking bull run is nearing its final leg. <\/p>\n

The shares dipped 0.23% to 688.6p as Citi maintained an ‘overweight’ rating on the wider sector, observing that recent earnings upgrades have now broadened to other market sectors too. <\/p>\n

At the heart of the update is a clear recognition that this broadening market momentum is actively reducing the historical scarcity value that European banks recently enjoyed among institutional investors. <\/p>\n

While lenders are still seeing earnings per share upgrades on a superior revenue outlook, the broker believes the fundamental drivers of that continued growth must now inevitably begin to shift. <\/p>\n

Looking ahead, analysts expect future earnings upgrades<\/a> to be increasingly driven by underlying lending volumes rather than the fading macroeconomic tailwinds of peak central bank interest rates. <\/p>\n

Those vital volume pushes are currently being supported by new corporate initiatives that are specifically designed to harness the expected benefits from banking ecosystems and AI capex. <\/p>\n

On the same note, the broker highlighted ABN Amro Bank NV\u00a0and Societe Generale SA\u00a0alongside the British lender as its standout top picks. <\/p>\n

These selections arrive as the broader market enters a phase where European bank valuations are still not demanding, but they are no longer considered excessively cheap either. <\/p>\n

Crucially, analysts flagged that any aggressive push for faster organic and inorganic growth across the sector is now likely to come at the direct expense of lucrative share buybacks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NatWest named top pick by Citi as European banking bull run nears final leg Proactive uses images sourced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21386],"tags":[13099,7920,45912,23535,45914,7955,8176,45913],"class_list":["post-111487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-natwest","tag-citi","tag-earnings-per-share","tag-european-banking","tag-european-banks","tag-final-leg","tag-natwest","tag-natwest-group","tag-top-pick"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117161990751138961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}