INDEX / DIRECTORY / NATWEST

NatWest

Banking 78 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-09-07 METHOD V6.5
BDS-1000 Score 511 /1000 C Tier C - High
Military ↗ 0.00 Digital ↗ 0.00 Economic ↗ 6.04 Political ↗ 1.29
OWNERSHIP TREE 24 brands and group businesses View all

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Key Findings

  • Economic: NatWest jointly underwrote Ithaca Energy’s £500 million July 2021 bond; Ithaca was then approximately 89% owned by Tel Aviv-headquartered Delek Group, whose settlement-linked activities and IDF fuel relationship are the documented concern.1
  • Economic: Civil-society research identified NatWest among European creditors of companies linked to Israeli settlements; Ethical Consumer characterised it as the 20th largest European creditor in the relevant 2021–September 2024 study period, subject to verification against the primary DBIO report.2
  • Military: NatWest has provided general corporate loans and bond underwriting to defence companies that supplied weapons systems to Israel, but the supplied record does not establish transaction-level financing of Israeli military supply chains.3
  • Not found: No public evidence identified of NatWest operating in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territory, underwriting Israeli sovereign debt, or maintaining a confirmed current Israeli-origin technology deployment beyond the historic BioCatch deployment at Coutts and for some NatWest business customers.4

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameNatWest Group plc
JurisdictionUnited Kingdom; incorporated in Scotland.5
HeadquartersEdinburgh, Scotland.6
SectorRetail, commercial, private, and markets banking.6
OwnershipLondon Stock Exchange-listed holding company (LSE: NWG). At 31 December 2025, notified holders above 3% were BlackRock, The Capital Group Companies, Massachusetts Financial Services Company, and Norges Bank; no notified holder held 10% or more on that reporting basis.7
Key Executives / GovernancePaul Thwaite became Group CEO in February 2024. HM Treasury completed disposal of its remaining NatWest shares on 30 May 2025; the former state holding is historical shareholder context, not a current ownership relationship.8
Israeli-Nexus SummaryDocumented nexus is principally indirect financial exposure to settlement-linked and defence-linked corporate counterparties, plus a historic Israeli-origin behavioural-biometrics deployment and accelerator participation; no direct Israeli operational presence was identified.1, 3, 4

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

NatWest Group is a UK banking group whose documented Israel/Palestine nexus is primarily financial rather than operational. The clearest specific transaction is its role as joint bookrunner and underwriter in a £500 million Ithaca Energy bond issuance in July 2021. Ithaca was approximately 89% owned by Tel Aviv-headquartered Delek Group; the concern identified in the audits derives from Delek’s settlement-linked activities and reported fuel-supply relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defence and IDF, rather than from direct Ithaca settlement operations or a direct NatWest contract with Delek.1

The broader economic record includes campaign and civil-society research identifying NatWest as a creditor of companies linked to Israeli settlements and as a financier of defence companies that supplied Israel. The reported DBIO ranking of NatWest as the 20th largest European creditor of settlement-linked companies is a secondary characterisation and should be verified against the primary report. Similarly, reported rankings in arms-financing research and finance to Leonardo and Rolls-Royce should not be read as proof that a particular NatWest facility funded a particular Israeli military contract.2, 3

The digital record is narrower. BioCatch announced a deployment from early 2016 at Coutts and for some NatWest business customers, for fraud prevention and continuous authentication. The supplied evidence does not establish that the service continued after the proposed personal-banking pilot, expanded across retail banking, or transferred data to Israel. The nine Israeli start-ups in the NatWest accelerator were participants in an equity-free entrepreneurship programme; the record does not establish their procurement or production deployment by NatWest.10

No public evidence identified of NatWest directly manufacturing or procuring military materiel, operating in Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza, underwriting Israeli sovereign bonds, holding an Israel-specific trade-finance relationship, providing technology to Israeli state-security bodies, or taking a public corporate position for either party to the conflict.4, 11 NatWest was also not found liable in the Interpal litigation: summary judgment for NatWest was affirmed on appeal and the Supreme Court declined review.12

Under the fixed, human-vetted V6.5 assessment, NatWest receives a BRS score of 511 and Tier C (Substantial Complicity). The tier reflects the assessed economic-financing record, while preserving the substantial limits on direct attribution and the absence of verified military or current digital operational nexus.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
Early 2016BioCatch stated that its behavioural-biometrics technology was deployed at Coutts and for some NatWest business customers for fraud prevention and continuous authentication.10
March 2019A US District Court granted summary judgment dismissing claims against NatWest in the Interpal litigation.12
7 April 2021The Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the Interpal litigation.12
July 2021NatWest was among the underwriters and joint bookrunners for Ithaca Energy’s £500 million bond issuance.1
27 June 2022The US Supreme Court declined to hear the Interpal petition; NatWest was not found liable.12
2023DBIO research identified NatWest as the 15th largest European financier of companies with settlement-enterprise activities, according to Ethical Consumer’s reporting.13
February 2024Paul Thwaite became NatWest Group CEO.8
Approximately July 2024NatWest sent Yad Vashem UK an automated account-closure letter, then apologised, reversed the decision, and described it as an administrative error.14
November 2024DBIO IV covered financial relationships from January 2021 to September 2024; Ethical Consumer subsequently characterised NatWest as the 20th largest European creditor of settlement-linked companies in that period.2
30 May 2025HM Treasury completed its exit from NatWest shareholding.8

Corporate Overview

NatWest Group plc is a UK-listed banking holding company headquartered in Edinburgh. Its principal banking businesses include National Westminster Bank plc, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Coutts & Company, NatWest Markets Plc, Ulster Bank, Lombard, and RBS International businesses.6, 9 It is a financial-services company rather than a manufacturer, defence contractor, or physical-goods supplier.

The reviewed record identifies no NatWest branch, subsidiary, representative office, data centre, Israeli R&D centre, or Israel-focused trading desk in Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza.4, 11 Its documented geographic footprint is principally the UK, Republic of Ireland, Crown Dependencies, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Luxembourg, United States, and selected Asia-Pacific locations.4

The group’s Israel-related institutional links are limited in the supplied evidence. NatWest participated in the UK–Israel Tech Hub-facilitated accelerator, in which nine Israeli start-ups received entrepreneurship support, potential office access, networking, and opportunities to pitch innovation teams. That model does not itself establish procurement, equity investment, acquisition, customer-data access, or production use by NatWest.15

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified that NatWest manufactures, supplies, procures, or directly contracts for defence equipment, weapons systems, or military materiel. No public evidence identified of NatWest acting as a prime or subcontractor to a defence ministry.11

The documented military nexus is financial. Civil-society research identified NatWest as a financier of Boeing, Leonardo, and Rolls-Royce, companies reported to have sold weapons or weapons systems to Israel between 2019 and 2023.3 A campaign dataset reported at least £1.6 billion in NatWest loans and bond underwriting to six nuclear-weapons-component producers between January 2021 and August 2023, including Honeywell, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Leonardo, Jacobs Solutions, and BAE Systems.16 This relates to NATO nuclear programmes, not Israeli nuclear capability.16

The Ithaca underwriting creates a separate indirect logistical nexus. Delek Group’s reported contract to supply fuel to the Israeli Ministry of Defence and IDF is attributed to Delek and its subsidiary, while NatWest’s contractual role was underwriting bonds issued by UK-registered, London-listed Ithaca Energy.1

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The company’s strongest defence is that it is a civilian bank providing general corporate finance, not a weapons producer or military supplier. The documented loans, revolving facilities, syndicated lending, and bond underwriting were general corporate instruments; the supplied evidence does not establish that any NatWest transaction was earmarked for Israeli military supply, munitions production, or IDF activity.3, 16

Ithaca itself had no documented direct settlement operations in the supplied record. The settlement and IDF-fuel concern arises from its parent, Delek Group, so this is not evidence that NatWest directly financed a settlement project or contracted with Israeli military bodies.1 No public evidence identified of NatWest directly financing Israeli or settlement-linked construction or infrastructure projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.11

Named Entities and Evidence Map

EntityDocumented relationshipLimit
Boeing, Leonardo, Rolls-RoyceNatWest identified as financier in civil-society research concerning companies that sold weapons or weapons systems to Israel.3General corporate finance; no transaction-level linkage to Israeli supply established.
BAE Systems, Honeywell, Airbus, Jacobs SolutionsIncluded in campaign-reported NatWest nuclear-weapons-related loans and underwriting.16NATO nuclear-programme context; not evidence of Israeli nuclear financing.
Ithaca Energy / Delek GroupNatWest underwrote Ithaca’s July 2021 bond; Delek is the settlement-linked and IDF-fuel-linked parent identified in reporting.1NatWest’s direct counterparty was Ithaca, not Delek or the IDF.

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

BioCatch announced that its behavioural-biometrics technology was deployed from early 2016 at Coutts and for some NatWest business customers. The stated use was online and mobile fraud prevention and continuous authentication, including analysis of behavioural indicators such as navigation and scrolling patterns.10

A UK Israel Tech Hub notice recorded nine Israeli start-ups in NatWest’s accelerator programme: EasySend, Iagree, PayMe, Privacy Rating, Algosave, Valid Network, Cred, ForceNock, and Deceptive Bytes.15 The programme offered bank-funded, equity-free support and opportunities to pitch, rather than establishing vendor procurement.15

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified that the historic BioCatch deployment continued after the proposed 2017 personal-banking pilot, expanded to personal banking, was renewed, or was retired. The evidence confirms Coutts and some NatWest business customers, not all RBS or NatWest retail customers.10

No public evidence identified that BioCatch data from the documented deployment was stored, routed, processed, or legally accessible in Israel. No public evidence identified that NatWest operates Israeli data-centre infrastructure, participates in Project Nimbus, deploys Israeli-origin facial recognition or physical surveillance, or supplies technology to Israeli state, military, intelligence, police, prison, or settlement actors.11

The accelerator evidence does not establish production deployment, a contract date, user scope, customer-data access, or procurement of any participant. The “6.4 million” claim attached in one source to Israeli cybersecurity technology is not corroborated by the confirmed BioCatch evidence; an RBS figure refers to mobile-app users and does not identify an Israeli security vendor.10

Named Entities and Evidence Map

EntityDocumented relationshipLimit
BioCatchHistoric behavioural-biometrics deployment at Coutts and for some NatWest business customers.10Continuity, later scope, actual data flows, and Israel processing are unverified.
Nine UK–Israel Tech Hub accelerator participantsAccelerator support, mentoring, networking, and pitching opportunities.15No production procurement or deployment identified.
Featurespace, IBM, OpenAI, AWS, Google CloudDocumented NatWest technology providers and collaborations.17UK- or US-domiciled; not evidence of an Israeli-origin technology nexus.

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

NatWest’s strongest documented economic vector is the July 2021 underwriting of Ithaca Energy’s £500 million bond. Ithaca was approximately 89% owned by Delek Group. Reporting cited in the audit identifies Delek’s West Bank settlement petrol stations and its fuel contract with the Israeli Ministry of Defence and IDF; NatWest earned underwriting fees on the issuance.1

DBIO IV identified NatWest among European financial institutions with relationships to companies actively involved in settlements. Ethical Consumer characterised NatWest as the 20th largest European creditor of settlement-linked companies over January 2021–September 2024; the audit expressly notes that this secondary characterisation should be verified against the primary report.2

The record also contains reported financing of arms companies with Israeli military contracts, including Leonardo and Rolls-Royce.3 An allegation that NatWest provided £193.9 million to ENI should remain unresolved: the Israeli offshore gas licences are documented, but the NatWest financing figure was not independently verified in the audit.18

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified that NatWest underwrote Israeli sovereign debt; the seven banks identified as post-October 2023 primary underwriters did not include NatWest.19 No public evidence identified of direct NatWest equity stakes in Israeli companies, significant Israeli institutional shareholders, Israel-specific revenues, tax payments, or direct contributions to Israeli state institutions or settlement municipalities.4

The Ithaca transaction is active underwriting, but Ithaca was a UK-registered, London-listed entity and the concern is attributable to its parent’s activities. NatWest publicly stated that the transaction met its sector policy and declined individual-client commentary.1 The DBIO and arms-finance findings concern corporate financial relationships, not proof that every exposure was targeted, project-specific, or intended to support settlements or military operations.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

EntityDocumented relationshipLimit
Ithaca Energy / Delek Group£500 million July 2021 bond underwriting; Delek is the identified settlement-linked parent.1Ithaca itself was not documented as having direct settlement operations.
DBIO settlement-linked companiesNatWest named among institutions with financial relationships; reported 20th-largest-European-creditor ranking.2Ranking is secondary reporting and requires primary-report verification.
Leonardo / Rolls-RoyceReported recent NatWest financing; both are connected in the cited research to weapons supplied to Israel.3Amounts and facility-level attribution were not independently verified in this audit.
ENIActivist-linked allegation of NatWest financing; ENI received Israeli offshore exploration licences.18Financing amount unverified; exploration licence is not settlement-industry activity.

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified that NatWest issued a corporate statement on the Israel–Gaza conflict, the October 2023 Hamas attacks, a ceasefire, or support for either Israel or Palestine.20 No public evidence identified of political donations or registered lobbying directed at UK policy on Israel, Palestine, or Gaza.20

The political/communications record instead concerns administrative account-handling incidents and financial exposure. In approximately July 2024, NatWest sent Yad Vashem UK an account-closure letter, then apologised, reversed the closure, described it as an administrative error, and continued banking the charity.14 The audit found no evidence that this was politically motivated.

The Interpal litigation is relevant as a documented legal episode but is not evidence of liability. Families of victims of Hamas attacks alleged that NatWest knowingly provided banking services to Interpal; NatWest disputed the claim and referred to the UK Charity Commission’s clearance of Interpal. The case was dismissed, affirmed on appeal, and not revived by the Supreme Court.12

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

NatWest’s strongest defence is the absence of a public political stance or operational presence in the conflict area. The Yad Vashem matter was publicly characterised as a procedural systems error, not a conflict-related position.14 The Cordoba Foundation/Anas Altikriti reporting documents alleged account closures amid broader de-risking of Muslim-associated organisations, but no public evidence connects NatWest’s action to Israel/Palestine or identifies a specific Palestinian-solidarity or Gaza-aid account closure by NatWest.21

The former UK Government shareholding was a consequence of the financial-crisis recapitalisation and ended in 2025. It is shareholder-level historical context, not evidence that NatWest adopted UK Middle East policy or engaged in political advocacy.8

Named Entities and Evidence Map

EntityDocumented relationshipLimit
Yad Vashem UKAutomated closure notice reversed after apology; NatWest called it an administrative error.14No evidence of political motive.
InterpalLitigation alleged banking services; NatWest prevailed at summary judgment and on appeal.12NatWest was not found liable.
Cordoba Foundation / Anas AltikritiReported unexplained account closures involving NatWest/RBS among several banks.21No Israel/Palestine connection publicly established.
UK GovernmentFormer major shareholder following bailout; completed exit in 2025.8Historical shareholder context, not an operational or political nexus.

BDS-1000 Score

Method: V6.5

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital1.500.009.000.00
Economic6.506.507.506.04
Political2.004.509.001.29

V_MAX is driven by Economic, reflecting the documented active underwriting of Ithaca Energy and the vetted record of broader financing relationships with settlement-linked and defence-linked counterparties. Political reflects limited indirect and governance-related context; Military and Digital remain zero in the final score because the evidence does not establish direct military activity or a verified current digital nexus of the requisite kind.

The V6.5 method is scale-free, evidence-only, and human-vetted. It does not treat allegations, historical shareholding, indirect corporate-parent relationships, or unverified supplier claims as direct proof.

Methodology Note

Footnotes

  1. https://www.theferret.scot/banks-raise-money-for-oil-firm-israeli-settlements/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  2. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/money-finance/israel-deadly-investments ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. https://www.banktrack.org/article/european_financial_institutions_invest_billions_in_arms_companies_that_sell_weapons_to_israel ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. https://www.natwestgroup.com/who-we-are/about-natwest-group/worldwide-locations.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  5. https://www.natwestgroup.com/hygiene/legal-information.html ↩

  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NatWest_Group ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  7. https://investors.natwestgroup.com/~/media/Files/R/RBS-IR-V2/annual-report-2025/2025-annual-report-and-accounts.pdf ↩

  8. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-completes-exit-from-natwest - 2 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  9. https://www.natwestgroup.com/who-we-are/board-and-governance/our-subsidiaries.html ↩ ↩2

  10. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/natwest-deploys-biocatch-behavioural-biometrics-technology-to-help-combat-fraud-601547175.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  11. https://www.biocatch.com/company ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  12. https://charityandsecurity.org/litigation/tzvi-weiss-et-al-v-national-westminster-bank-plc/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  13. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/natwest-group ↩

  14. https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/natwest-apologises-for-error-in-closing-holocaust-education-charitys-account.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  15. https://ukisraelhub.com/events/9-israeli-start-ups-join-natwests-fintech-accelerator/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. https://nukedivestmentscotland.org/royal-bank-of-scotland-group/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  17. https://www.natwestgroup.com/news-and-insights/news-room/press-releases/ai-and-data/2025/mar/natwest-open-ai-collaborate-to-accelerate-cutting-edge-ai-transf.html ↩

  18. https://bankbetter.uk/natwest-deadly-bank/ ↩ ↩2

  19. https://www.banktrack.org/news/seven_underwriters_of_war_bonds_instrumental_in_enabling_israel_s_assault_on_gaza_new_research_finds ↩

  20. https://viraltalky.com/does-natwest-support-israel-or-palestine/ ↩ ↩2

  21. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/15/hold-ive-lost-count-uk-muslims-facing-bank-closures ↩ ↩2