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Our Priorities

Every year we strengthen the extent and rigour of our consultation with our stakeholders. The issues that matter most to them provide the focus and priorities for activities.

  1. Overview
  2. Financial Crime
  3. Customer Service
  4. Selling and Lending Practices
  5. Employee Practices
  6. Environmental Impact
  7. Community Investment
  8. Global Lending and Project Finance
  9. Financial Education
  10. Financial Inclusion
  11. Small Business Support

We have a longstanding commitment to financial education focusing on young people and adults and an independent advisory panel reviews our strategy.

Financial education for children and young people

In 2007, 550 employees delivered MoneySense lessons to 635,000 pupils.

Since 1994, we have been working with teachers and schools to provide MoneySense lessons to help young people gain a basic financial understanding. In 2007, we:

  • Delivered MoneySense lessons to over 635,000 pupils, in 1,400 secondary schools across the UK
  • Put the lessons online increasing accessibility
  • Held the first ever RBS Personal Financial Education Awards for Schools in partnership with the Personal Finance Education Group and The Daily Telegraph
  • Opened a further 200 new school savings banks in the UK
  • Developed the Coutts Assets and Responsibility Course to help young people best manage a large amount of money

In the US:

  • Citizens employees reached 600 pupils throughout New York State on the annual National Teach Children to Save Day

Financial education for adults

Many older people do not necessarily have the financial skills they need. In 2007 we increased our activity with adults in a number of ways:

  • Re-launched the MoneySense website to include a budget calculator and debt advice - the site receives an average of 11,000 visitors per week
  • Produced booklets on MoneySense to distribute in NatWest and RBS branches
  • Partnered with the Daily Mail to offer a free guide and increase our reach beyond our own customers.
  • Worked with the Metro on their six month Debt Alert Campaign, supported by Citizens Advice

We are working with the FSA on a project to make generic financial education accessible in the workplace. Twenty RBS group employees are currently being trained as Workplace presenters.

Our research: The MoneySense panel

The panel will focus on 10,000 secondary school pupils aged 11-18. The five year study will examine their attitudes and behaviours to money and how these change over time. It will give us robust evidence for how different levels of financial education affect attitudes and aspirations. To find out more about the panel and download the first findings of the research, click here

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