RBS 2009 Annual Report Download - page 48

Did you know?
2.5 million
The number of customers who
downloaded Rapport, a fraud
prevention software package we
introduced in 2009, free of charge.
•Ensuring the safety, health and wellbeing of employees is core to our
business. In 2009, we updated the Group’s Safety and Health policy
standard to reflect our commitment to the safety and health of our
people in every country in which we operate.
Global citizenship
Global citizenship means taking responsibility for how we manage our
wider economic, social and environmental impact on society. Environmental
sustainability and responsible lending are key elements of this.
Environmental sustainability
The transition to a low carbon society has already begun and we take
seriously our role in supporting this transition. We set our environmental
strategy through the Executive-led Environment Working Group, which
has representation from all relevant Divisions and reports to the Group
Sustainability Committee.
•We have developed a strong focus on providing financial services
to clients and projects operating in the renewable power and energy
efficiency sectors. In late 2009, we were confirmed as one of the three
UK banks to take part in the European Investment Bank scheme to
lend to onshore wind projects.
•In late 2009, we signed the Copenhagen Communiqué, a collective
statement from businesses that called for an agreement between
countries that would give them the confidence to invest in solutions to
climate change.
•We continue our work to reduce the impacts of our own operations,
covering energy consumption, CO2emissions, travel, water and
paper use. In the UK and Ireland, we procure 92% of our contracted
electricity from renewable sources and our default office paper has
80% recycled content.
•We maintained strong performance in external indices that measure
sustainability performance and in 2009 we scored 77% in the Carbon
Disclosure Project and were included in the Dow Jones Sustainability
Index with a score of 76%.
RBS Group Annual Report and Accounts 200946
Corporate Sustainability continued
•We continue to achieve a strong response rate for our annual
Employee Opinion Survey (87% in September 2009), and use the
results to identify where we need to invest more time and energy to
create a positive employment experience. Although our 2009 results
demonstrated our employees’ resilience in areas like customer
focus and efficiency, responses around security and engagement
decreased. We responded to this by launching a number of initiatives
to engage and develop our staff across the Group.
•To improve opportunities for all groups of employees, a Group
diversity and inclusion programme was launched in 2009 to deliver
industry-leading performance. The programme is supported and
enabled by our internal networks, Focussed Women Network, and
Rainbow, both of which aim to inspire, lead, coach, motivate and
create opportunities to fulfil employees’ potential.
•To equip the senior employees of the Group to understand,
execute and sustain the strategic business plan, a new Leadership
Development Programme has been launched. In addition, we
launched the Harvard Business Publishing Online product across
the Group, tailored for the use of all employees.
Safety and security
We are committed to making banking safer and our ongoing investment
in new security and technology continuously works towards this goal. We
also ensure that a safe and secure environment is provided for our staff.
•To enhance online security for our customers, we launched a fraud
prevention software package free of charge for anyone who banks
online with RBS or NatWest. Since January 2009, Rapport has been
downloaded by over 2.5 million customers.
•In 2009, we rolled out a ‘Safer Banking’ brochure in branches
throughout the UK, outlining the possible risks of financial crime as
well as fraud prevention tactics.
•Customers can also subscribe for real time SMS alerts regarding
customer deposits and credit card accounts, enabling customers to
keep track of their debit and credit card transactions.
•We increased controls that protect customer information by
completing a global assurance review of more than 800 of our high-
risk third parties in 2009, agreeing actions to manage identified risks.