The report details the bank as seeing mortgage growth of £14.4bn in the year to December 2022, powering a net loan increase of £15.4bn.

It adds that gross new mortgage lending came to £41.1bn, comprising a flow share of ‘around’ 13%.

A total of £2.9bn of mortgage loans completed in 2022 were for green mortgages, the lender details.

The results also show that NatWest has set an impairment charge of £337m, significantly less than the £1.2bn Barclays announced it as having set aside earlier this week.

On this, Mather & Murray Financial managing director Samuel Mather-Holgate says: “The loan impairment charge is interesting. Barclays was significantly higher, but that’s because they offer lending in the US at a level that NatWest doesn’t. It might imply the UK housing market is in a stronger position than our cousins across the pond.”

And SelfEmployedMortgageHub.com founder Graham Cox opines: “NatWest are definitely one of the more cautious lenders. For self-employed applicants, they only lend 4x income, and the industry standard is 4.5x.

“That may be part of the reason for the much lower impairment charge compared to Barclays. The government no doubt imposes strict controls as it still owns a sizeable stake in NatWest’s parent, RBS,” he concludes.

Of further interest is the fact that chief executive Alison Rose earned £5.25m in 2022, part of this comprising a bonus – marking the first time a head of NatWest has received a bonus since 2008.