NatWest Group has picked a new head of its high street branch network in the lender’s first significant appointment since ending its 17-year tenure in partial taxpayer ownership.

Sky News has learnt that Solange Chamberlain has been chosen as NatWest’s new retail bank chief executive, nearly six months after predecessor David Lindberg’s departure was announced.

Ms Chamberlain, who has worked for NatWest since 2019, will take up her new role on 1 July, subject to regulatory approval.

A former investment banker, she will report to Paul Thwaite, the bank’s group chief executive.

Her previous roles at NatWest include chief operating officer of its commercial bank and more recently as group director of strategic development.

NatWest’s retail bank has more than 18 million customers across Britain, making it one of the industry’s four biggest retail banks alongside Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group.

The recent acquisition of Sainsbury’s Bank added 1 million accounts to NatWest’s retail customer base.

Responding to an enquiry from Sky News, NatWest confirmed the appointment on Monday afternoon.

Mr Thwaite said in a statement that Ms Chamberlain’s “knowledge of our customers, sharp strategic thinking, and track record of transformation delivery will help us to grow our retail business and succeed with customers”.

On Friday, the Treasury sold the last of its shareholding in NatWest, having bailed out the then Royal Bank of Scotland with £45.5bn of taxpayers’ money during the 2008 financial crisis.

On Monday, shares in the bank were trading at around 524.6p, giving it a market value of more than £42bn.

Tide, the business banking services platform, is in advanced talks to raise new funding in a deal expected to make it Britain’s latest technology unicorn.

Sky News has learnt that Tide has been negotiating the terms of an investment from Apis Partners, a prolific investor in the fintech sector, for some time.

City sources cautioned that a deal between the two was not yet certain to take place, and that other investors were also in discussions.

Apis Partners has backed early-stage companies such as Moneybox, the UK-based digital wealth manager, and Thunes, a digital payments infrastructure provider.

Significantly, the firm has made a string of investments in India, which is overtaking the UK as Tide’s single-biggest geography.

Tide now has roughly 650,000 SME customers in both Britain and India, with the latter market expanding at a faster rate.

The precise terms of a deal between Apis and Tide were unclear on Monday.

Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank, has been advising Tide on the fundraising, which is expected to comprise a combination of primary and secondary shares.

Tide was founded in 2015 by George Bevis and Errol Damelin, before launching two years later.

It describes itself as the leading business financial platform in the UK, offering business accounts and related banking services.

The company also provides its SME ‘members’ in the UK a set of connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting.

It now boasts a roughly 11% SME banking market share in Britain.

Tide, which employs about 2,000 people, also launched in Germany last May.

The company’s investors include Apax Partners, Augmentum Fintech and LocalGlobe.

Chaired by the City grandee Sir Donald Brydon, Tide declined to comment on Monday.

Apis Partners also declined to comment.

The private equity giant EQT Partners is exploring an offer to buy the promoter of the World Rally Championship (WRC) as an auction valuing the business at close to £500m finally gets off the starting grid.

Sky News has learnt that Stockholm-based EQT is among a number of buyout firms preparing to bid for WRC Promoter, which owns the commercial rights to the WRC and the European Rally Championship.

Both series are sanctioned by the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body.

A sale of the promoter has been on the cards since last summer, when the news agency Reuters reported that bankers from JP Morgan had been hired to oversee an auction.

WRC Promoter is owned by the Austrian drinks behemoth Red Bull and KW25, a German investment company.

After five rounds of the 2025 WRC series, the championship standings are headed by British driver Elfyn Evans.

The next race takes place in northern Sardinia, Italy, later this week.

EQT has not been among the private equity industry’s most prolific investor in sports-related assets, but in recent months it has intensified its interest in the sector.

It recently took a stake in Baller League, a six-a-side football format which counts Gary Lineker among its backers, and was one of the bidders in auction of the commercial rights to Germany’s Bundesliga in 2023.

A spokesman for EQT declined to comment.