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NatWest coronavirus support measures

2nd July 2020

Please see our latest update on the steps we are taking to support our customers and colleagues through the pandemic.

Last week we announced the launch of a new online payment service, Payit, which allows customers to make instant online payments to participating retailers, without the use of a debit or credit card. Payit is a UK banking industry first: it’s our simple and secure solution to help merchants collect e-commerce payments. It also helps users save on transaction fees.  Compared to debit or credit card offerings, Payit will save a minimum of 25% for average transaction values of approximately £80 (based on our analysis and industry data from UK Finance).

We know we have an important role to play in equipping the next generation of workers, and particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds. Rather than cancel our internship scheme as a result of lockdown restrictions, I am pleased to say that 170 interns will instead take part in virtual learning activities over the summer, developing their knowledge of the bank and essential soft skills such as, personal resilience and building strong relationships.

To keep young people learning about money, we adapted MoneySense (our free financial education programme) for home-schooling by creating online resource bundles for parents and teachers and streamed live weekly money lessons on Facebook and YouTube. These ‘MoneySense Mondays’ were delivered by a Community Banker and a teacher and have had over 100,000 views. In the Autumn we plan to launch a new workshop on climate change for 8-12 year olds on ways to save money through choosing more environmentally friendly behaviours in the home.

At the start of the crisis we committed to match funding donations made by our customers to the National Emergencies Trust, contributing a total donation of up to £10 million. We have already raised £7 million, so are edging closer to our target!

Support for Government-backed lending schemes

  • As of June 19th, we have approved 185,259 applications with a cumulative value of £5.65bn under the BBL scheme.
  • On CBILS we have approved more than 13,474 applications with a total value of more than £3.1bn while we have approved £573m through CLBILS.
  • For larger customers, the bank has facilitated more than £7.02bn through CCFF and has a market share of 21% of CCFF issuances from the purchases by the BoE.

Please rest assured that I and my team are here to support you, until such time as the Experts in Residence are back in touch and see below for relevant links.

Best wishes,

Julie Baker

Head of Enterprise & Community Finance