Supporting SME ambitions

Our customers and supporting UK Businesses are at the heart of everything we do at NatWest. That’s why we’ve spoken to 8,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to gain a deeper insight into what is really important to them.

In listening to our customers a sense of disengagement and lack of trust is clear, with many feeling that banks are out of touch and only 40% believing they have a role to play in supporting their business ambitions. The remaining 60% felt that banks had no role and a key reason for this is that their bank has not demonstrated or shown they can help (Source - Online Business Panel, iCD, September 2010 n=1,259). This powerful and honest feedback is key in helping us understand and respond to these concerns, driving our desire to become the bank of choice for UK SMEs.

John Cox from NatWest explains:

“We are responding to the research and using it to shape the way we work. We are ensuring that everything we do is about helping customers achieve their ambitions whether they are immediate needs and goals or longer term plans. We want them to have the confidence to achieve their ambitions through working with us. ‘Ahead for Business’ encapsulates our commitment to making banking simple for all and offers SMEs a relationship team that understands their ambitions and can deliver transparency and added value through business and sector expertise.

We are proud to be leading the way with regards to the Government lending initiatives such as the Enterprise Finance Guarantee and European Investment Bank schemes as well as specific sector funding packages. But we understand that growth is not the main ambition for all SMEs. For many the focus is survival and day to day cash flow. This is where our teams of locally-based Business Managers and Relationship Managers can help, alongside sector specialists in areas such as healthcare, agriculture and franchise – all of whom are working towards industry accreditations to underpin their expertise.  Wider banking needs can also be accommodated through invoice finance to help with late payments and protection against bad debtors, structuring asset finance solutions as well as support of overseas trade activity and day-to-day domestic and online banking.”

With over 1.2million of the UK’s SMEs banking with The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest, our team genuinely understands the challenges faced by small businesses.

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