| Website | https://www.natwestgroup.com/ |
| Headquarters |
36 St Andrew Square
EH2 2YB Edinburgh
United Kingdom
|
| CEO/chair |
Paul Thwaite CEO |
| Supervisor | |
| Ownership |
listed on London Stock Exchange
Natwest Group's largest shareholder is the UK government, which holds 37.97% (as of Dec 2023) 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.
NatWest Group does not operate a complaints channel for individuals and communities that may be adversely affected by its finance. However, customers can make a complaint via the online form here, whereas stakeholders may raise complaints via the OECD National Contact Points (see OECD Watch guidance).
NatWest Group is an Equator Principles signatory. While the Equator Principles have no official grievance mechanism, complaints relating to this bank's financing of Equator Principles projects can be filed through our own website www.equator-complaints.org.
This page evaluates NatWest Group's responses to instances of alleged human rights violations linked to its finance, raised by civil society organisations. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but covers selected impacts raised by BankTrack and other civil society partners since 2016. For the full scoring methodology, see here. For more information about BankTrack's evaluation of bank responses to human rights impacts, see the 2021 report "Actions speak louder: assessing bank responses to human rights violations".
The 2024 Banking on Climate Chaos report showed that NatWest provided US$ 27.407 Billion in financing to the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2023. In 2023 only, NatWest provided US$ 376 Million for oil, gas and coal companies expanding fossil fuels. Find further details on NatWest 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.
Partner organisation Reclaim Finance tracks the coal, oil and gas policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool (CPT) and the Oil and Gas Policy Tracker (OGPT). BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of NatWest Group's fossil fuel policy below.
The purpose of the False Solutions Tracker is to give a clear overview of energy technologies that fall under banks' individual sustainable finance commitments. The tracker lists 11 energy technologies that are usually associated with the energy transition and the decarbonisation of the economy. These technologies are defined here and classified in three categories:
Real solutions: Technologies that deliver on a Just Transition towards Energy Democracy. BankTrack considers these technologies as real solutions only if and when they do deliver Energy Democracy.
Solutions under strict conditions: Energy technologies that could be real solutions if they deliver on a Just Transition towards Energy Democracy but that could also be false solutions. This is the case of hydrogen and hydropower. On one hand, fossil-free and green hydrogen could be a real solution under certain conditions. However, fossil-based hydrogen and nuclear hydrogen are always false solutions. On the other hand, hydropower lifespan extension could also be a real solution under strict conditions while hydropower expansion is a false solution.
False solutions: Energy technologies that are not aligned with a just transition towards Energy Democracy.
For each one of the 11 energy technologies, the tracker indicates if it is included in bank's individual sustainable finance commitments:
For Real solutions:
For solutions under strict conditions and for false solutions:
BankTrack assessed NatWest in its 2024 Global Human Rights Benchmark, where it achieved 6.5 points out of 15 and was ranked as a “follower”.
The bank scored 0 out of 3 points on the new “specific rights indicators”, which assess how banks address human rights defenders, Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent and environmental rights in their policies and practices.
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.
The table below shows BankTrack's assessment of how NatWest has implemented the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Please click on 'expand all details' and 'explanation' for further information on the methodology.
Our policy assessments are always a work in progress. We very much welcome any feedback, especially from banks included in the assessments. Please get in touch at humanrights@banktrack.org.
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.
Partner organisation Reclaim Finance’s 2023 report on metallurgical coal financing showed that NatWest provided US$ 2.8 billion in loans and underwriting to developers of new metallurgical coal between 2016 and 2022. Find further details on NatWest’s metallurgical coal financing and and how it compares to other large banks globally in the report.
Reclaim Finance tracks the metallurgical coal policies of financial institutions, including banks, in their Coal Policy Tool. BankTrack works closely with Reclaim Finance and endorses their policy assessments. Find further details on their assessment of NatWest’s metallurgical coal policy below.
