RBS 2012 Annual Report Download - page 10

08
ESSENTIAL READING
Successful companies put their customers first.
If they do not serve customers well they have
no purpose. Without satisfied customers there
is no return for shareholders, no jobs for
employees, no sales for suppliers and no taxes
to support public services.
Most of us at RBS get up every day with
the aim of serving our customers well.
But we know that for all of the good work we
have done there are just too many cases in
the past when we could have done better,
when some of our people acted in their
own interests or with a misplaced sense of
what was best for customers.
Failing to act in the right way is not just
dishonourable or unethical. It is unprofitable.
We have had to set aside £1.1 billion in 2012 to
recompense people to whom we sold Payment
Protection Insurance when sometimes we
should not have done that. We have been fined
£381 million in connection with inappropriate
conduct relating to the setting of the LIBOR
benchmark interest rate.
In rebuilding RBS, we want to make it safe and
to serve customers well. Part of making RBS
safe involves putting in place the systems and
controls that would have helped to stop many
of the errors of the past. That job is well
underway, although we are not complacent.
But better systems and controls are only part
of the solution. All of our people need to know
that, as most of them want to, our focus must
be on serving customers well. How are we
doing that?
It starts by setting the right example from the
top. Words are important – our Board and
Executive Committee have made it clear
that customers come first – but actions are
more powerful.
In Business & Commercial, ‘Working with You’
is our commitment that all of our relationship
managers will spend time working in
customers’ businesses. Chris Sullivan, Chief
Executive of Corporate Banking, helped lead
the way.
UK Retail aspires to be the UK’s most helpful
bank. Feedback from customers, including
their complaints, gives our leaders real insights
into what works for customers and what
doesn’t. But there is no substitute for direct
experience. ‘Back to the Frontline’ takes senior
people from across RBS, not just UK Retail,
and puts them in branches and call centres,
meeting customers and working shoulder to
shoulder with colleagues.
Our
customers