To be a leading learning organisation is one of our three areas of focus, under Our Purpose-led strategy. Through our learning agenda, we encourage everyone to develop good money management skills. You’re never too young to start, that’s why we deliver free MoneySense lessons in schools, inspiring 5-18 year olds to grow in financial confidence. When face to face lessons were no longer possible, we launched MoneySense Mondays, interactive lessons streamed in real-time on Facebook Live, that could be joined by parents and children from their homes.

Since its launch 26 years ago, MoneySense has helped more than nine million young people by providing activities, games and resources for students, teachers and parents to help teach children about money.

To support customers of all ages, we held further Facebook Live events with Friends Against Scams talking about the latest coronavirus scams and how customers can protect themselves, together with events to explain ways to bank at home. These events helped our customers bank digitally with confidence and stay safe during lockdown.

During national and local lockdowns many of our customers started to save for the first time. We introduced the new Digital Regular Saver to help our customers start and maintain a long-term savings habit. In the last four months of the year, we opened 215,000 Digital Regular Saver accounts, helping our customers build financial security for the future.

In 2020, a colleague-led taskforce was brought together to help the bank listen, learn and better understand what more we can do to champion the potential of everyone.

This work builds on the progress we have made over the past five years to create a more inclusive and diverse culture, whilst recognising we still have more to do. We have published ‘Banking on Racial Equality – A Roadmap for Positive Change’, our report on racial equality for our customers, colleagues and communities. The report includes a set of commitments and targets, to make a meaningful, positive difference to people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. As Black colleagues are particularly under-represented in senior roles across the UK, relative to the UK working population, we have introduced a new target to have 3% Black colleagues in our UK senior roles by 2025. This is in addition to our existing target to have at least 14% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic leaders in senior UK roles by 2025. As at the 31 December 2020 we have on aggregate 10% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues in our top four leadership layers in the UK, representing a 2% increase since targets were introduced.

We are confident our report will spark reflection and action that will pull down the barriers that prevent too many from reaching their potential. We believe future employees of all ethnicities will read this report and aspire to work at NatWest Group because we are a diverse and inclusive place to work, one that works hard to enable everyone to bring the best of themselves to work and doesn’t leave anyone behind.

Published in 2019, the Rose Review, led by our CEO Alison Rose, demonstrated that removing these barriers could add £250 billion to the UK economy.

We have over 600 Women in Business Specialists throughout the UK and are committed to using our expertise to support women to start up and grow their businesses. In 2020 we announced £1 billion of Female Entrepreneurship Funding, all of this funding has been allocated and we recently announced a further £1 billion in funding.

Since 2018, 43% of entrepreneurs on our free NatWest Accelerator programme have identified as female, and we have teamed up with Be The Business to pilot the Rose Review Female Entrepreneurs Mentoring Programme, a free mentoring service for female entrepreneurs in Leeds and the West of England, with plans to expand in 2021.

In response to COVID-19 we pivoted Dream Bigger, our fully-funded programme focused on developing transferable entrepreneurial skills in 16-18 year old females across the UK, to digital delivery. In 2020, the programme supported over 15,000 16-18 year old female entrepreneurs, working with Microsoft, Facebook and Young Enterprise Scotland.

In our Experts in Residence partnership with 38 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), a NatWest expert spends up to 7 hours per week supporting female and diverse business owners. The programme sees us work alongside partners such as Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and LinkedIn, with activity tailored to the needs of each LEP.

NatWest Group launched Island Saver in 2020, its first ever educational video game which harnesses children’s enthusiasm for video games as an opportunity to teach them about money management.

Created with the independent games developer Stormcloud Games, Island Saver is an open world, non-violent, first-person game, set on the idyllic Savvy Islands with an array of environments to explore. Designed for 7-12 year olds, players are armed with a ‘trash blaster’ and tasked with cleaning up the islands of litterbugs that have polluted paradise. Learning through play is at the heart of Island Saver and woven into the gameplay are a series of money and environmental learning points. These range from a simple work-to-earn loop, as characters earn coins by recycling litter, to saving money in bank accounts and using a PIN. As players progress through the game they’ll also be introduced to the more advanced money concepts including paying tax, bartering, borrowing money, scams and foreign exchange.

Island Saver is available to download for free on PlayStation®, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (via Steam), Android and iOS. The game has received great ratings on all platforms: 10/10 on Steam; 4.8/5 in the Apple App Store; 4.6/5 on Xbox; and 4.5/5 on PlayStation. It was also in the top 20 downloads on Nintendo Switch in Europe and North America in June 2020. In 2020, Island Saver was downloaded over 2.3 million times.

More of our customers are accessing our services digitally – which is now more important than ever. 

We now have 9.4 million active digital users, up from 8.7 million in 2019 and we added 0.9 million newly active mobile users during 2020, taking the total to 7.7 million. By the end of 2020 we were holding 9,000 weekly video banking conversations with customers, compared to fewer than 100 per week in January 2020 – allowing our colleagues to support our customers with a highly personal service from the safety of their own homes. Our digital services are fast, simple and convenient, making it easy for our customers to manage and look after their money, especially during the disruption of 2020.

Our digital offering continues to be powered by innovation. Cora, our 24/7 AI virtual assistant, had nine million customer conversations in 2020, and she played a crucial role during the pandemic. When payment holiday demands spiked, Cora stepped in, serving customers via our mobile app and online banking, so they didn’t need to go into a branch or wait on the phone. So far, she's had 370,000 customer requests for payment holidays, freeing up colleagues' time to support customers with more complex queries. Requesting a PIN reminder, changing address and even getting balance and recent transaction information can all now be done via Cora. Crucially, when Cora can't help, she can put customers straight through to a colleague, for a seamless experience.

In 2020 the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator Programme was recognised as the No.1 UK accelerator programme.1

Entrepreneur Accelerator is our flagship programme, fully funded by NatWest Group, to support high growth-potential businesses with ambitions to scale across the UK. We focus on giving entrepreneurs the best possible coaching, in world class environments, while connecting them to our amazing networks. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have run 1,016 virtual events, with 45,782 attendees. By moving our Accelerator Programme from face-to-face to digital delivery, we continued to support our entrepreneurs at a time when they need us most.

We are committed to creating and supporting new businesses and concentrate our efforts on underrepresented groups and geographical inequality. The programme has supported 1,230 entrepreneurs, of which 43% were female, 18% were of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and 81% were outside London and the South East of England. The resulting businesses have raised total investment of £56 million, generating £128 million of total turnover and creating more than 1,000 jobs. To support SMEs and entrepreneurs nationwide, we launched the ‘In Conversation With’ series. Available to both customers and non-customers alike, the series gives the UK’s six million SMEs an opportunity to hear directly from some of the most influential voices in industry. We hope the inspiration provided by these experts, alongside our full range of support, will help SMEs and entrepreneurs to survive, thrive and prosper in the wake of the unique challenges of 2020.

Note: (1) By total number of attendances, Beauhurst – September 2020.

In 2020, NatWest Group delivered £12 billion of climate sustainable funding and financing to customers against our target to deliver £20 billion by the end of 2021.

We are committed to tackling climate change, which is a core part of Our Purpose-led strategy and seek opportunities to demonstrate our leadership and contribution to a cleaner energy future.

In 2020, NatWest Group acted as a lead arranger for the financing of the first two phases of Dogger Bank Wind Farm. Upon completion of all three phases in 2026, Dogger Bank Wind Farm will be the largest offshore windfarm in the world. The project is being developed by SSE, a leading developer, owner and operator of renewable energy across the UK and Ireland together with Norwegian firm Equinor, a leading energy provider, with each holding a 50% stake.

Located over 130km off the north east coast of England, by 2026 Dogger Bank Wind Farm will support 320 new skilled jobs and produce enough electricity to supply 5% of the UK's demand - equivalent to powering six million UK homes each year. NatWest Group acted as a lead arranger of the transaction for the financing of the first two phases, comprising 29 banks and three export credit agencies providing £5.5 billion of financing facilities, making this the largest offshore wind project financing to date, globally.

Renewable energy is a strategically important sector for NatWest Group, Dogger Bank marked our ninth offshore wind project finance transaction in the UK in the past four years. We have been the number one provider of finance to the UK renewables sector over the last 10 years – by total number of transactions over that period – with 79 transactions totalling £3.86 billion (1), supporting more than 8GW of offshore wind development.

NatWest Group works with SafeLives, the UK-wide charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for everyone and for good.

Through our relationship, SafeLives has consulted on bank policies and practices to improve outcomes for customers, leading to the innovation of our e-form for survivors to contact the bank safely and the introduction of video banking to prevent impersonation of victims.

In 2020, NatWest Group launched a review into how it can better support customers who have been victims of economic abuse and acquired coercive debt and announced a £1 million fund to support survivors of economic and domestic abuse, the first bank in the UK to offer this amount of financial support. The review, conducted in conjunction with SafeLives, will look at internal processes, as well as preventive solutions and practical support available for customers affected.

This new NatWest Group fund will be open to victims of economic and domestic abuse across the UK and will increase access to tools, support and financial assistance. SafeLives and NatWest Group will work together with survivors and specialist domestic abuse services to co-create the programme, making sure the lived experience of survivors influences its design, so it meets people’s needs and helps build financial confidence and independence.

We are committed to finding innovative solutions that keep our customers safe and able to pay for the things they need, when they need them.

In 2020, we launched 'Banking My Way', a free service that allows customers who need additional support or adjustments to request bespoke assistance to make banking easier. We share the information on our internal systems, so our customers don’t need to repeat requirements every time they interact with us. Since ‘Banking My Way’ was launched we have received instructions from over 40,000 customers. We also introduced the Companion Card enabling customers in vulnerable situations and those in extended isolation to give trusted volunteers a way to pay for their essential goods. The card can by topped up by up to £100 every five days and given to a trusted person or carer to enable them to make purchases on behalf of the individual. 

We were the first UK bank to offer vulnerable customers and those in extended isolation a fee-free cash delivery service to their door, with £5 million delivered to customers across the UK in 2020. Additionally, customers can request a ‘Get Cash’ code that enables a trusted third-party to make ATM withdrawals up to £100 on someone’s behalf from any NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank ATM. These innovations have been introduced in response to the coronavirus crisis to help our customers and enhance their ability to pay for essentials whilst protecting themselves.