The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Bank chief pledges easy access to cash
NatWest boss Alison Rose said yesterday the pandemic had stiffened the group’s resolve to deliver “accessible and flexible” banking as part of the UK’s green recovery,
Britain’s banks have rolled out a wave of branch closures in recent years, hitting rural areas particularly hard and leaving a growing number of communities without a bricks and mortar presence.
The arrival of mobile banks in towns and villages has become the norm for many in the north and north-east who have lost their fixed branches.
UK Government figures show there were 403 Scottish branch closures from 2015-2019, with 290 ATMs lost in that period.
Yesterday, Ms Rose, chief executive at Edinburghbased NatWest – formerly Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group – agreed easy access to cash and banking services were more important than ever following the Covid-19 outbreak.
Interest in NatWest’s video banking service – allowing customers to use smartphones, tablets or computers to speak to staff face-to-face – has been “really positive”, she said.
Other digital services, cash deliveries and mobile vans were also helping to reach people who may no longer have a branch in their local community, Ms Rose said.
A NatWest spokesman added: “All of our customers have access to the UK Post Office branch networks to perform transactions if no RBS branches are nearby. We also have our mobile banking and community banker services.”
Ms Rose also said she was looking forward to finding out more about the new £16 billion North Sea Transition Deal announced by the UK Government, adding: “I welcome any public-private sector collaboration to help the energy sector transition.”
Meanwhile, NatWest announced yesterday it had joined forces with Microsoft to help firms reduce their carbon footprint.
The collaboration will “empower businesses to better understand how they can cut their carbon emissions and create action plans to accelerate meeting their climate change goals”, the bank said.
NatWest research shows 88% of businesses think reducing their indirect emissions, such as in their supply chains, is difficult to get external support for.
In a scheme to be piloted later this year and building on Microsoft’s cloud, data and artificial intelligence platform, the bank will support its business customers in understanding how and where they can reduce their emissions. Ms Rose said: “Tackling climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. As the leading bank in the UK for businesses, we have a significant responsibility, and the ability to encourage, enable and to lead the way in the UK to transition to a net-zero carbon economy.
“Cross-industry collaboration and powerful partnerships will help to accelerate the speed of the transition, and I am very pleased we are working with Microsoft to help Britain’s businesses to understand and tackle their carbon footprints.”
Microsoft UK chief executive Clare Barclay said: “We are proud to partner with NatWest on its bold sustainability aspirations. Partnerships help us accelerate progress and together I’m looking forward to enabling more UK businesses to drive the progress we urgently need.”