RBS 2007 Annual Report Download - page 25

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RBS Group • Annual Report and Accounts 2007
In supplying money advice, our work aims to improve the
quality and availability of information for people facing
difficulties managing their finances. Of course, much of what
we do in this area is part of the service we routinely offer to
customers. In addition to general advice, available through
MoneySense, our research shows that customers value
tailored money management advice that helps them when they
are making specific decisions. In 2007, our response included
recruiting an additional 1,000 Customer Service Advisers in
our RBS and NatWest branches and undertaking 1.2 million
personal financial reviews with our customers.
We also support the money advice sector. Our efforts here are
channelled through the Money Advice Trust (‘MAT’), a charity
formed in 1991 to improve the supply of free and independent
money advice. We continue to be the largest corporate sponsor
of MAT. Our support allows the MAT to train Debt Advisers.
More than 90% of the free money advice sector is trained
using RBS funded materials and our funding supports 5,000
free places on training courses each year. We have chosen to
focus our support specifically on face-to-face advice because
it is the preferred channel for those on lowest incomes.
In the US, Citizens’ Individual Development Account offers low
income families incentives to save for home ownership, post-
secondary education or business ownership. This anti-poverty
strategy combines learning about financial management with
incentives to save for long-term assets that improve the economic
security and lifetime earning power of participants.
Face2Face with Finance for Schools programme. During
that time we have invested more than £40 million in related
activities, from providing lessons to almost 1.5 million school
children to supporting 20,000 free training courses for debt
advisers. In 2007 our employees delivered more than 16,000
lessons to over 635,000 pupils.
To ensure we have a sound evidence base for our activities
in this field we have established the MoneySense Research
Panel, a cohort of 10,000 secondary school pupils aged
between 11 and 18 years. We will keep in touch with this
group of young people over the next five years to understand
how different levels of financial education and understanding
affect the capabilities, aspirations and decisions they make
as they enter early adulthood.
The work we do to build financial capability extends beyond
young people in schools. In October, Face2Face with Finance
was brought even more firmly into the heart of our business
and rebranded as MoneySense.
We reached beyond our customer base in building capability
through media partnerships with two UK national newspapers.
The Metro Debt Alert campaign, run in partnership with Citizens
Advice sought to help people better understand their finances
and encouraged those with concerns to seek help early. Our
partnership with the Daily Mail offered its readers a free guide
on How to Take Control of Your Money.
Promoting financial inclusion
Some people can find it difficult to access financial services,
with challenges in three areas: bank accounts, credit and
debt advice. We are the UK’s largest provider of Basic Bank
Accounts, which are designed for customers who have had
difficulty in entering the banking system.
We recognise that some people’s financial needs may be
better fulfilled by organisations outside the banking sector and
we work with Third Sector bodies to improve the provision of
affordable credit to people on low incomes. In January, RBS
was chosen as the main banking partner of Scotcash, a new
Community Development Finance Institution set up to provide
access to affordable credit to people in Glasgow who have not
had full access to mainstream financial services.
100% of electricity purchased in the UK and for the
island of Ireland came from renewable energy sources
Employee double matching programmes extended
to the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific
20 employees from Wealth
Management spent a week working
with charity, Habitat for Humanity,
constructing five houses for a rural
community near Bangalore, India.