Ross McEwan, said he wanted to “create a bank that is known for exceptional customer service and not for failure”, admitting that “sometimes we make it too hard for our customers to do business with us”.
New Zealander McEwan, who was appointed after June’s Treasury-led ousting of predecessor Stephen Hester, acknowledged that as the recipient of a £45bn taxpayer bail-out, the 81pc state-owned lender had “a greater obligation than any other bank to build a business that supports its customers.
We were saved by the Government five years ago because of how important we are to the everyday economy of the UK.”In his memo to staff, he made a priority increasing lending to both businesses and households.
“I want RBS to stand firmly behind its customers with the explicit goal of helping them succeed. That includes an increase in our lending. We must do everything possible to support the recovery and future growth of the UK.”
Mr McEwan has already thrown his weight behind the Government’s Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme – despite fears that it may stoke a housing bubble.
Mr McEwan, who was hired a year ago from Commonwealth Bank of Australia to run RBS’s retail bank, stressed improved customer service included making the lender “one of the easiest banks to do business with”.
“We have too many processes that get in the way of people simply trying to do the right thing for the customer,” he said.
“An early priority therefore is to figure out the best way to simplify things. We know that we could be smarter with our resources.”
He made no reference to the review by Rothschild, commissioned by the Treasury, into splitting RBS into a good and bad bank.However, he implied that, while the UK would remain his principal focus, his vision for RBS included maintaining an international dimension.
“A strong bank needs a strong home market, and the UK is ours,” he said.
“We are an international bank because our customers trade globally, but the UK is where the majority of our customers run businesses, create homes, build financial security for their families and put their ambition to work in multi-national companies.”
Mr McEwan, who has a salary of £1m a year, will not be taking an annual bonus – a move designed to avoid similar furores over bonus payments that marked the reign of Mr Hester.
RBS’s new boss will, however, receive share awards under the bank’s three-year incentive plan, while he has already been handed £3m of shares to buy him out of bonus awards he was due to receive from Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Mr Hester left after falling out with Chancellor George Osborne over the way forward for RBS, not least Treasury plans for radical cutbacks to its investment bank. But Mr McEwan made it clear that his predecessor had left a vital legacy.
“Five years ago, Stephen Hester inherited a very different bank to the one we have today,” he said.
“The world was watching as we stood on the brink of collapse with no clear way forward. I want to say again that Stephen and his team have my deepest thanks and respect for the job they have done.
We are now on a stable footing and this is a remarkable achievement that we must never undo.” Mr McEwan joins with the shares at 363.7p, up 3.8 in lunchtime trading.
That is still well below the average 502p price at which the taxpayer bought its stake – and the 407p level where the Government holds the shares on the state books.
telegraph.co.uk
New Zealander McEwan, who was appointed after June’s Treasury-led ousting of predecessor Stephen Hester, acknowledged that as the recipient of a £45bn taxpayer bail-out, the 81pc state-owned lender had “a greater obligation than any other bank to build a business that supports its customers.
We were saved by the Government five years ago because of how important we are to the everyday economy of the UK.”In his memo to staff, he made a priority increasing lending to both businesses and households.
“I want RBS to stand firmly behind its customers with the explicit goal of helping them succeed. That includes an increase in our lending. We must do everything possible to support the recovery and future growth of the UK.”
Mr McEwan has already thrown his weight behind the Government’s Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme – despite fears that it may stoke a housing bubble.
Mr McEwan, who was hired a year ago from Commonwealth Bank of Australia to run RBS’s retail bank, stressed improved customer service included making the lender “one of the easiest banks to do business with”.
“We have too many processes that get in the way of people simply trying to do the right thing for the customer,” he said.
“An early priority therefore is to figure out the best way to simplify things. We know that we could be smarter with our resources.”
He made no reference to the review by Rothschild, commissioned by the Treasury, into splitting RBS into a good and bad bank.However, he implied that, while the UK would remain his principal focus, his vision for RBS included maintaining an international dimension.
“A strong bank needs a strong home market, and the UK is ours,” he said.
“We are an international bank because our customers trade globally, but the UK is where the majority of our customers run businesses, create homes, build financial security for their families and put their ambition to work in multi-national companies.”
Mr McEwan, who has a salary of £1m a year, will not be taking an annual bonus – a move designed to avoid similar furores over bonus payments that marked the reign of Mr Hester.
RBS’s new boss will, however, receive share awards under the bank’s three-year incentive plan, while he has already been handed £3m of shares to buy him out of bonus awards he was due to receive from Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Mr Hester left after falling out with Chancellor George Osborne over the way forward for RBS, not least Treasury plans for radical cutbacks to its investment bank. But Mr McEwan made it clear that his predecessor had left a vital legacy.
“Five years ago, Stephen Hester inherited a very different bank to the one we have today,” he said.
“The world was watching as we stood on the brink of collapse with no clear way forward. I want to say again that Stephen and his team have my deepest thanks and respect for the job they have done.
We are now on a stable footing and this is a remarkable achievement that we must never undo.” Mr McEwan joins with the shares at 363.7p, up 3.8 in lunchtime trading.
That is still well below the average 502p price at which the taxpayer bought its stake – and the 407p level where the Government holds the shares on the state books.
telegraph.co.uk
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