The chairman of NatWest, Rick Haythornthwaite, has candidly expressed that the bank encountered "unexpected challenges" in 2023, despite the banking sector's rapid evolution.
Speaking to shareholders at the annual general meeting he reflected on the year's difficulties: "Clearly 2023 was an exceptional year, that brought challenges for our customers, our sector, and the economy, as families and businesses faced into the fastest rate rise cycle since the 1970s with persistently high levels of inflation."
He remained optimistic about the bank's resilience: "The year brought unexpected challenges for the bank but our foundations and performance are strong in fact profits for 2023 were at the highest level they have been since before the 2008 financial crisis."
Amid a leadership shake-up following the debanking controversy involving Nigel Farage, NatWest reported a pre-tax profit of £6.2billion, the most substantial since its government bailout. The departure of chief executive Dame Alison Rose and Coutts boss Peter Flavel marked a significant change, paving the way for Paul Thwaite, the former head of commercial business, to take the reins, who acknowledged the "great sense of responsibility" that comes with his new role.
Mr Thwaite, addressing the AGM in Edinburgh, emphasised NatWest's commitment to "prioritising bank-wide simplification to become more efficient and effective". He outlined plans to employ automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to expedite processes.
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"A bank-wide exercise in 2023 identified over 100 priority use cases for AI to address manual operations processes and wider controls," he disclosed. "Ultimately, we want to build a NatWest Group that is simpler and more productive to better serve our customers."
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