RBS 2006 Annual Report Download - page 21

RBS Group • Annual Report and Accounts 2006
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Divisional review continued
■Retail Markets was the fastest-growing UK Bancassurer in
2006, with sales increasing by 56% to £267 million annualised
premium equivalent in 2006 and 116,000 customers taking
out £8.9 billion worth of life assurance cover.
■In response to simplified pension legislation in the UK,
Bancassurance modified and re-launched our Stakeholder
Pension Plan and introduced a new Self-Invested Personal
Pension Plan. We also launched a website providing
customers with detailed information on the new legislation
and an interactive tool to help them assess its impact and
decide on their best course of action.
■We have introduced significant changes to our
Bancassurance administration processes and systems.
These help to process our customers’ applications faster,
and include a new telephone support team and a new,
shorter application form.
Business Banking
■The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest are the
market leaders in small business banking in the UK.
■In 2006, over 53,000 business customers reviewed
their banking needs with one of our 200 Financial
Planning Managers.
■NatWest Business Banking provides an extended
hours, telephone-based, full banking service with access
to a dedicated business relationship team for over 44,000
customers. The number of NatWest business customers
using internet banking regularly has increased by 28%
in 2006.
■We piloted Shariah Commercial Property Finance
in Leeds and Bradford to provide Muslim customers
with compliant finance options.
■The Royal Bank of Scotland provided facilities
for farmers to accept their support payments in euros.
■Mentor, our business advice service for employment
law, health & safety, and tax, assisted more than 22,000
customers last year.
Cards & Direct Finance
■Chip & PIN capability was successfully completed in
February 2006. Implementation of this, together with other
fraud prevention initiatives, contributed to a reduction in
fraud losses in 2006 for our core Retail credit card portfolios.
■The relationship with Bank of China gives us access
to one of the fastest-growing cards markets in the world,
and our joint business has issued 1.2 million cards in China.
■In merchant aquiring, through our brands including
Streamline and RBS Worldpay, we are the largest in
traditional and internet payments in the UK and continental
Europe, and No 4 globally for traditional payments. We are
the largest facilitator of e-commerce payments in Europe and
processed 360 million transactions via the internet in 2006.
Retail Markets continued
Divisional review Retail Markets
New branches The Royal Bank of Scotland
and NatWest have continued to extend their
branch networks. When Clydesdale Bank
closed its branch in New Deer, Aberdeen-
shire, we worked with the local community
to open a Royal Bank of Scotland branch
in its place.