Tell us about the region the North Board covers?
NatWest Group has a long and proud history of supporting local businesses, economies, and communities right across the North of England.
The North Board’s work spans from the Scottish border to North Wales, Cheshire, North Derbyshire and North Lincolnshire
It’s a region that is hugely varied, from large cities (Manchester, Leeds and Bradford are all in the UK’s top five largest cities by population) to remote, rural areas such as the Peak District, Cumbria and Northumberland.
We support business and commercial customers across all sectors including manufacturing, technology, creative services, tourism, real estate and agriculture. Our support for start-ups, growing businesses, and national and multinational organisations is underpinned by our Entrepreneurial Accelerators in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle and a team of experienced relationship managers covering all corners of the region.
We also support our personal customers through our branches, mobile banking services and banking hubs as well as our Coutts Wealth teams based in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle.
And what does the board do to support customers?
We support our customers to help them achieve their goals, whether that’s growing their business, buying a home, or investing for the future – and by doing that the bank plays a role in driving the economy across the North.
Our Board members – and 8,000 colleagues across the region – live and work in the same streets, towns and communities as our customers and our relationships run much deeper than the transactions you might immediately associate with a bank.
The North Board represents every part of the bank and it’s our job to listen to our customers and partner organisations across the cities, towns and communities we do business.
There’s no one-size fits all approach for the region. An emerging tech business in Liverpool will have different aspirations, opportunities and challenges to an agriculture or hospitality customer in the Lake District for example. The Board’s role is to understand and support our customers and communities a local level, responding to the different needs we see.
We use our scale, resources and convening power to support and grow local business ecosystems and networks. This helps connect people across local economies so that new business relationships can be formed, creating more opportunities for growth.
All of this means, we’re uniquely positioned to be a vital and trusted partner for our customers across the North – and the more we support our customers to succeed, the more our local economies benefit.
Tell us about Financial Foundations and how it supports customers
The bank’s Financial Foundations programme is a financial wellbeing initiative that was championed in the North. We deliver to the employees of our business and commercial customers or partner organisations.
The programme is free and our colleagues , who are professionally accredited, visit the business or organisation and deliver workshops covering budgeting, managing your credit scores, debt management, importance of savings/pensions and fraud prevention.
Knowing that people go to work every day worried about money and this impacts on absenteeism and productivity[1], Financial Foundations enables us to use our financial expertise in a way that gives back to our business customers and their staff as well as the wider community.
It’s totally impartial advice, we don’t look to sell services or persuade anyone to bank with us, and the sessions include lots of really simple, practical steps that people can follow to improve their financial wellbeing.
Our business customers have told us that they’ve seen a reduction in sickness due to financial distress and that their colleagues feel more valued because of the support they’ve been given, which ultimately helps them to retain talent.
And, for us, all of this plays a part in creating regional economies that are better positioned to grow and helps us to build closer relationships with our customers.
To date in the North, we’ve delivered sessions to more than 6,000 people and the feedback has been really positive. It’s great to know that the programme, established in the North, is expanding UK-wide and will reach tens of thousands to deliver real, positive change in many people’s lives.
[1] Money & Pensions Service (Financial wellbeing in the workplace | Money and Pensions Service)
