RBS 2009 Annual Report Download - page 28

RBS Group Annual Report and Accounts 2009
26
Wealth
Brian Hartzer
Chief Executive,
UK Retail,
Wealth and Ulster Bank
MFor biographies
see pages 8-11
Some of our most famous brands – Coutts, RBS
Coutts, Adam & Company and RBS International
– make up our Wealth Management business.
They have an international presence and offer a
proven suite of products. Most importantly, in
each of our businesses, clients come first.
Coutts is a prime example of that philosophy. We listen to clients
and deliver what they want, from direct wealth management services
to advice about how to manage their philanthropic activities.
We operate a telephone service for clients, Coutts24, that handles calls
24 hours per day, seven days a week, in every week of the year. In 2009,
we handled more than one million client calls.
While clients sometimes want to speak to us, at times they prefer to
do their business online. An average of 2,000 clients each day logged
onto our online banking service. They completed 350,000 payments
and transfers during 2009, over 50 per cent of all such transactions
across the business.
Our website has also become a very effective tool for attracting
new clients. We converted 41% of enquiries that came to us via the
Coutts.com website into new clients for Coutts.
We are conscious of our wider responsibilities and know that our
clients often want to channel their money where it will make the greatest
difference. We help them to do that. Our Wealth Institute works with
clients who may run a family firm or have expressed a desire to increase
their philanthropic giving. The Wealth Institute is building a portfolio of
services that we believe will build trust in us among these clients. In 2009,
Coutts launched a microfinance pilot fund, which provides small-scale
financial support for people who have the means to earn their way out of
poverty. We invited our clients to contribute to the fund, which supports
projects in Cambodia, Malawi, South Africa, Nicaragua and Haiti.
Initiatives like this have proved successful at Coutts, and we are now
starting to roll them out across the RBS Coutts business.
Wealth provides private banking and
investment services in the UK through
Coutts & Co and Adam & Company,
offshore banking through RBS International,
NatWest Offshore and Isle of Man Bank,
and international private banking through
RBS Coutts.
2009 2008
£m £m
Net interest income 663 578
Non-interest income 446 481
Total income 1,109 1,059
Expenses (656) (695)
Operating profit before impairment losses 453 364
Impairment losses (33) (16)
Operating profit 420 348
Risk-weighted assets (£bn) 11.2 10.8
Net interest margin 4.38% 4.51%
Cost:income ratio 59.2% 65.6%
Loan:deposit ratio 38% 36%
21%
increase in operating profit
>1million
calls handled in the year by Coutts24
Target Cost:income (%) Loan:deposit (%)
2011 <60 <35
2013 <50 <30