Royal Bank of Scotland
We are monitoring the impact of coronavirus on all our customers to ensure we can support them appropriately through this period of disruption. We are also working with governments, regulators and other banks to ensure we are doing everything we can to support our customers and the UK economy (For instance we have paid many of our suppliers early and are committing to pay them within 4 working days). We will continually review the support we are giving to make sure it is fit for purpose and we will also look to introduce new schemes where we feel our customers want/need them.
We are doing everything possible to proactively reach out to our customers, especially vulnerable customers, but any help you can give us would be much appreciated. My colleagues are working extremely hard in difficult circumstances to serve our customers and in some cases we may take slightly longer to address issues than we would like but volumes of enquiries have increased dramatically and we are working hard to meet the challenges presented to us.
Over the last week we have been working with Scottish Enterprise and SFE to build a ‘one stop’ location for the information that businesses in Scotland affected by Covid-19 may need and I thought this may be of interest to members.
Within the Find Business Support page you will find the latest information on CBILS, CLBILS, help for the self-employed, UK Government schemes, Scottish Government Schemes, available funding sources along with financial support guidance and sector specific support. The page includes links to the Covid-19 support pages from every major bank in Scotland. This information will be regularly updated.
Dedicated support lines
Our customers over 70 and those in isolation: We have created a dedicated support line for customers over 70 and those who are in a period of isolation. This dedicated line has been set up so we can help those most in need and is open 8am-8pm 7 days a week. Those who need it can call us on:
NHS Workers: We have also set up an emergency customer care line for NHS workers. Our team of experts are ready to help with emergency banking support such as lending assistance and lost and stolen cards. This line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for our customers:
Personal customers
There may be circumstances where a personal customer may fall into financial difficulty as a result of the impacts of coronavirus. We will look to understand each customer’s situation on a case-by-case basis and can offer a number of options to help them manage their finances. We have a range of forbearance options to assist all customers in financial difficulty and have made available the following:
Ways to Bank
Customers can continue to access their banking through a range of channels, including digital, mobile, ATMs, telephony, video banking, branches and the Post Office.
Branches
We’re doing everything we can to keep our services running for customers. Our branch network remains open and we’re prioritising core opening hours from Monday to Friday, from 10am to 1pm. Aligned to the relevant public health guidance, we have reviewed our opening hours to ensure we can cater for our colleagues who are absent, many of them self-isolating. Unfortunately, due to these reasons, we have taken the difficult decision to pause our mobile branch fleet with immediate effect. We are proactively contacting our regular customers to discuss their banking needs. Customers can continue to access their banking services through our other channels including digital, mobile, ATMs, video banker, telephony and Post Office.
This is a fast-changing situation and could potentially change quickly. Our colleagues in branches and contact centres are working incredibly hard in difficult circumstances. We’re encouraging customers not to visit a branch unless it's critical and if they do to practice safe social distancing.
We would urge customers to regularly check their local services by visiting:
Access to Cash
There are several ways we can support customers’ cash needs – and we are working to develop more options too. Customers can use ATMs, Post Offices and can call us or log into the mobile app to get a ‘GetCash’ code, which can be used to withdraw cash without a card.
Business customers
The impacts our customers experience will vary from sector to sector, but we are being proactive in the way we support them and we are speaking to many of them about the steps they can take and the support that’s available to them. For business customers we are:
The Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBIL) for lending up to £5m is being rolled out with a streamlined approach and, where possible, minimised requirements to ensure we can support our customers as quickly as possible; and,
We are also supportive of the Bank of England’s Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) and are supporting customers who wish to apply.
Immediate measures to support cashflow and provide additional working capital:
Relevant and up to date information is available on the NatWest / Royal Bank of Scotland / Ulster Bank Business Hubs (see below for links)
Further information for our customers can be found on the:
Colleagues:
The vast majority of our colleagues are now working from home (>40k) and we are working with governments and local authorities on planning and finding the right level of support for staff who are deemed “key workers”. We have also committed to all our staff that they will get their full pay for the next 6 months.
This is a difficult time and I want to reassure you that the bank is doing all it can to help customers and communities across the UK. We will constantly review all the actions we are taking to make sure they are having the right impact. We will also look for new ways of supporting our customers and will continue to work with a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, to find solutions to the problems we are all facing and to plan for the future.
