RBS 2008 Annual Report Download - page 19

RBS Group Annual Report and Accounts 200818
Corporate Responsibility
Corporate
Responsibility
Our approach
RBS tries to be a responsible corporate citizen
wherever we operate. Our approach is distinctive.
It involves regular and direct consultation with our
stakeholders to find out what they think about how
we do business and the actions they believe we
should prioritise. We use that intelligence to help plan
how we run the business. Progress towards achieving
our plans is measured and monitored, allowing us
to demonstrate the advances we made in 2008.
As well as responding to what we learn from stakeholders,
we have to be flexible, adapting what we do as circumstances
change. The turbulence in financial markets in 2008 and its
effects on our customers were precisely the types of events to
which a responsible financial services company has to respond.
During the year we gave much greater emphasis to supporting
our customers through the economic downturn, while continuing
to work on the priorities which had previously been identified.
What this demonstrates above all is that at RBS social
responsibility is business as usual.
Progress against priorities in 2008
Consultation with our stakeholders had led to the identification
of 10 priority areas for action in 2008. Full details of these are
available at www.rbs.com/cr. Three leading priority areas were:
•financial crime;
•customer service; and
•how we market and sell our products.
Financial crime is at the heart of our most basic responsibility
as a bank: to keep our customers’ money secure. During the
year we:
•promoted Risk Guardian – a fraud screening product to
help reduce merchant liability from card fraud;