RBS 2009 Annual Report Download - page 46

RBS Group Annual Report and Accounts 200944
Corporate Sustainability
What is Corporate Sustainability
and why does it matter?
We have always aimed to ensure that our business has a positive impact
on society and that we support the communities in which we operate.
Our difficulties in recent years now mean that it is more important than
ever for us to demonstrate this. Given the public investment in RBS,
there is considerable scrutiny – understandably – of how we manage
issues such as treating customers fairly, support for enterprise, job
losses, and our impact on the environment. Whilst we are able to build
on many years of good work in areas such as financial education, we
recognise that there is always more we can do, and that we need to
work hard to rebuild trust in our business.
Our approach
To increase the profile of sustainability across our business and
enhance the governance of our strategy, we have established a new
Group Corporate Sustainability Committee, which is chaired by Sandy
Crombie, and has representation from our key business areas. It meets
at least twice a year and oversees our approach to sustainability
throughout the Group.
We are focusing our work on five key themes, which we know from
ongoing consultation to be of particular importance to our many
stakeholders.
Fair banking
Supporting enterprise
Employee engagement
Safety and security
Global citizenship
First and foremost, we drive action on these themes through the
day-to-day work of our business units, to ensure that we are operating
on a socially sustainable basis. Over the next few pages, we outline
what that means in practice, with a selection of examples for each of
our five themes of sustainability.
In some areas, however, we believe we should go beyond what we
achieve in our business units. Alongside our day-to-day activities, we
have established a number of dedicated programmes that we back up
with additional resources – see page 47 for more details on our
Community Investment programme.
Sustainability in practice: day-to-day examples
across the five key themes
Fair banking
We are committed to developing customer relationships that last.
There are four key strands to doing this: responsible lending practices;
customer service; financial education; and financial inclusion.
Responsible lending practices
Responsible lending continued to be a top priority for all stakeholders
during 2009 and key issues were the availability and affordability of
credit and support for customers in financial difficulty.
•In July 2009, we voluntarily extended the credit card 30 Day
Breathing Space commitment to all NatWest and RBS unsecured
personal loans and overdrafts, which provides time for customers
struggling to make their regular repayments to receive money advice
and consider their options.
•We launched a unique on-line tool which is designed to encourage
customers to save. Launched in December 2009, the tool allows
customers to work out a savings plan for their specific goal and shows
customers the progress made and if they are saving enough.
•We made a series of reductions to charges and fees for unarranged
borrowing. The fee for returning a cheque, direct debit or standing
order was reduced to £5. The fee for paying an item when overdrawn
was cut by half to £15 per day.
Customer service
We have listened to our customers’ views and we are making significant
changes to ensure that customers are always put first.
•We will launch a Customer Charter in 2010 that makes clear commitments
to our customers about how we will deal with them to deliver ‘helpful
banking’ and how we will support the communities we serve.
•In August 2009 we commenced a programme to replace all Maestro,
Solo and Laser debit cards with Visa Debit cards. Customers are
benefiting from a higher level of purchase protection.