RBS 2006 Annual Report Download - page 37

RBS Group • Annual Report and Accounts 2006
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Highlights of 2006
■Ulster Bank integration was the Group’s biggest
integration project since NatWest, involving nearly 2,000
business and technology staff across the Group. It was
a complex programme involving the integration of three
banks and two currencies in two jurisdictions. The Ulster
Bank integration successfully migrated systems and
processes from Ulster Bank Retail and First Active onto
the RBS group Manufacturing model. This involved moving
2.5 million customer accounts and £30 billion of balances
to the RBS group platform in a single weekend.
■Ulster Bank Group is now well positioned to take
advantage of existing RBS products and services and
future developments on the Group’s platform. As a result
of this integration, our core retail systems now support
euro processing, and will be able to support any future
euro-based brands.
■On our busiest payment processing day in 2006 we
processed over 100,000 outward CHAPS payments, worth
over £118 billion. We are among the top 10 senders of
SWIFT payments globally.
■In 2006, the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest
brands had 2.3 million customers banking online, an
increase of 33% from 2005.
■Our customer contact centres generated more
than 1.57 million sales leads during 2006, compared
with 1.17 million in 2005.
■In 2006, staff processed over 13% more new mortgage
applications per person, compared with 2005.
■Corporate Service Centres opened 123,000 new
accounts in 2006, a 13.8% rise over 2005.
■Lombard Operations supported 17% growth in UK
new business deals for Lombard Asset Finance.
■We successfully won and implemented the handling
of Tesco’s England and Wales cash, coin and clearing
business, equalling a total cash and coin business of
£9.6 billion, and processing of eight million cheques
per year.
■Recently the Group launched the Welcome Account,
which provides the increasing number of Polish speakers
in the UK with a current account, a money transmission
account and a debit card. The service also offers a dual-
language website and an option to talk to a Polish-speaking
customer service adviser.
■We created a telephone service for Private Banking
customers allowing them to make transactions and speak
to an adviser round the clock. We have supported the
significant business growth of Coutts with a 20% increase
in the number of new accounts opened and an increase
of 22% of payments processed.
■By training people in multiple skills and adopting
flexible working hours we are able to redeploy staff to
areas of peak demand. This increased flexibility resulted
in call centre staff handling 11% more calls per person
than in 2005.
■We continue to reap the benefits of using UK Mail
to distribute our correspondence around the country,
with Royal Mail providing final delivery to our customers
in a process known as ‘Downstream Access’. In 2006,
331 million items were delivered using this method,
generating savings to the Group of over £10 million.
■The Group collaborates with two charities, ‘Green-
Works’ and ‘Recycle Scotland’, to recycle surplus office
furniture for re-use by non-profit organisations, donating
over 1,700 tonnes of office furniture in 2006 for use in
schools, hospitals and community groups.
Divisional review Manufacturing
Ulster Bank Integration In 2006 we
successfully completed the integration of
Ulster Bank and First Active onto the RBS
technology platform. This was a complex
programme involving the integration of three
banks and two currencies in two jurisdictions.
2.5 million customer accounts and £30 billion
of customer balances were transferred.
Manufacturing continued
Divisional review continued