| Website | https://www.natwestgroup.com/ |
| Headquarters |
36 St Andrew Square
EH2 2YB Edinburgh Scotland
United Kingdom
|
| CEO/chair |
Alison Rose CEO |
| Supervisor | |
| Ownership |
listed on London Stock Exchange
Natwest Group's largest shareholder is the UK government, which holds 45.97% (as of December 2022) of the shares. |
NatWest Group, founded in 1727, is a British banking and insurance holding company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Its main subsidiary companies are The Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Ulster Bank and Coutts. Prior to a name-change in July 2020, it was known as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group. After a massive bailout in 2008, a majority of RBS' shares were purchased by the UK Government. In 2014 the bank embarked on a restructuring process that saw it refocus on its business in the UK and Ireland. As part of this process it divested its ownership of Citizens Financial Group, the 13th largest bank in the United States, in 2015.
NatWest Group's most important sustainability commitments can be found at the website sections listed below.
NatWest Group is linked to a number of companies and projects that BankTrack considers controversial (so called Dodgy Deals), e.g. as a current or past financier or through an expression of interest. The profiles below provide more details on the nature of NatWest Group's link to these deals.
The 2022 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that NatWest Group provided US$ 14.84 Billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2021. Find further details on NatWest Group fossil fuel portfolio and how it compares to other large banks globally on Fossil Banks No Thanks and in the Banking on Climate Chaos report.
Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in the Coal Policy Tracker and Oil and Gas Policy Tool. Find further details on their assessment of NatWest Group fossil fuel policy below.
BankTrack assessed NatWest in its 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 4.5 points out of 14 and was ranked as a follower. In addition, NatWest scored 0 out of 3 on how it responds to alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, which were raised by civil society organisations. More information is detailed in the "Accountability" section of this profile.
NatWest Group is a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) and has therefore committed to reduce its financed emissions to net zero by 2050; within 18 months of joining the alliance set interim targets for 2030 (or sooner) for high emission priority sectors, and within 36 months set further sector targets; set new intermediary targets every 5 years from 2030 onwards; annually publish data on emissions and progress against a transition strategy including climate-related sectoral policies; and take a robust approach to the role of offsets in transition plans. BankTrack track's implementation of these commitments in the NZBA compliance tracker.
