RBS 2004 Annual Report Download - page 55

Annual Review and Summary Financial Statement 2004
Corporate
Responsibility
53
Our 2004 performance
 We employ 137,000 people worldwide.
We are one of the largest corporate taxpayers in
the UK. In 2004, dividends to shareholders totalled
£2.1 billion and payments to suppliers were over
£5 billion.
 84% of employees completed the 2004
Employee Opinion survey. In 13 out of 14 categories
the Group performed ahead of the ISR Global
Financial Services norm.
 We provide 45% of the finance to
businesses in the most deprived inner-city areas.
NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland are
sponsoring “Rethinking Regeneration: Enterprise
for All?” in conjunction with the Treasury. The
programme supports talented entrepreneurs in
some of the UK’s most deprived communities.
 Citizens Bank in the USA is working to
extend its “Outstanding” Community Reinvestment
Act rating to the newly acquired Charter One Bank.
 During 2004, the RBS Group established
a partnership with Green-Works, a social enterprise,
to ensure that all surplus Group furniture is recycled
and reused by charities and educational
establishments.
 We have reduced courier mileage by
an estimated 5 million miles per annum saving
500,000 litres of fuel. 35 miles of paper per night
has been saved through delivering internal reports
to our customer facing divisions electronically.
65,752 pieces of IT equipment were recycled.
Community investment
There are three principal elements to the Group’s
Community Investment Programme: Education,
Employment & Enterprise, and Employee Giving.
The Programme focuses on helping excluded
young people and communities realise their
potential. The value of the Programme overall
was £46 million in 2004, making it one of the
largest in Europe.
Education
In 2004, our financial education programme,
Face 2 Face With Finance, provided more than
5,000 lessons in financial education to over 150,000
pupils in 780 schools across the UK. We are the
largest individual supporter to the Money Advice
Trust, donating £1.8 million over three years to provide
advice for 800,000 people in financial hardship.
Aimhigher roadshows, which promote the benefits
of university education, reached 119,000 young
people in the UK.
A new £3 million Supergrounds programme
was announced to improve 450 primary school
playgrounds.
Employment & enterprise
In November 2004, the Group announced a
£5 million extension over three years to its
partnership with The Prince’s Trust. 800 employees
volunteered for this good cause.
Our support for Fairbridge and The Prince’s Trust
is helping 45,000 disadvantaged young people to
improve their opportunities and prospects.
40,000 single parents accessed free, confidential
money advice through the RBS funded Lone Parent
Helpline.
Employee giving
The RBS Give As You Earn scheme, which ‘double
matches’ monthly donations from our employees,
raised £6.4 million for 2,800 charities. Together with
the Community Cashback Awards totalling £1.9
million, and the £1 million Christmas donation, the
three schemes generated a record £9.3 million in
charitable donations.