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Ethnicity

Our business needs to reflect the communities we serve, so that we can cater to them to the best of our ability. We want to give everyone who works here, and every customer who comes into contact with us, the chance to succeed and the support to thrive. And until that’s everyone’s lived experience, we’ll work to make it a reality. We are committed to becoming ethnically diverse with a focus on the recruitment, retention and advancement of colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds. 

For full information please refer to our 2024 Annual Report & Accounts (PDF, 19.0 MB) and Sustainability data sheet (xlsx, 1.3 MB).

Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy (PDF, 143 KB) is focused on ensuring that our people policies and processes are inclusive and accessible – from how we attract and recruit, to how we reward and engage colleagues. We’re confident in our approach and through time it will help us achieve a better balance of diversity and continue our work to be an inclusive bank.

Read about our Multicultural employee-led network here.

Reporting

Ethnicity Pay Gap

In line with our commitment to transparency under the UK Government's Race at Work Charter, we have voluntarily disclosed our ethnicity pay gap for NatWest Group UK. This year we have disaggregated our ethnicity pay gaps to compare Asian, Black, mixed/multiple and other ethnic minority colleagues average hourly pay to that of White colleagues.

Banking on Racial Equality: A Positive Roadmap For Change

In 2020 our CEO established a Racial Equality Taskforce, to listen, learn and better understand the barriers faced by colleagues, customers and communities from ethnic minority backgrounds. The Taskforce co-leads brought together partners, colleagues and leaders from across the Group, challenging them to expand, enhance or accelerate existing projects and initiatives. In October 2020, the Taskforce set out ten commitments in the Banking on Racial Equality Report, which we provided regular progress updates on:

Our commitments to Racial Equality – 6 months on

Our commitments to Racial Equality – one year on

Banking on Racial Equality – two years on

 

Since our last progress update, we’ve continued to make strides towards our commitments.

Expand the sections below to see highlights:

Our renewed racial equality commitments

In October 2023, three years on from when we published our Banking on Racial Equality Report, three new co-leads stepped in to lead our Racial Equality Taskforce. Building on the successes of the previous taskforce leads and our report’s commitments, the new leads have outlined ambitions that will continue their work, making a tangible difference for our customers, colleagues, and the communities we serve, via a refreshed set of commitments.

Recognising that a number of our original commitments from 2020 had been completed, these renewed commitments were selected to allow focus in areas where we can continue to make progress – they will guide our collective actions across the bank as we work together to create a more equitable and inclusive environment for everyone.

Our renewed commitments

For colleagues

We’ll establish better awareness of ethnicity learning for all colleagues and encourage more colleague and leader participation in Allyship training.

We’ll build leaders’ awareness of the development interventions available for our ethnically diverse colleagues to ensure our targeted talent pipeline is achieved.

We’ll continue to mitigate against bias in our recruitment process and work to increase ethnically diverse hires at senior level.

For customers

We’ll connect with ethnic minority customers and communities through reach, representation and resonance in our marketing and communications.

We’ll use the insights gained from our research (including with our strategic partners) to inform and shape our ongoing implementation strategy for ethnic minority customers and communities.

For communities

We’ll support ethnic minority businesses to grow by delivering education about finance and procurement and reviewing opportunities to increase access.

We’ll build capability by delivering financial, enterprise and career education workshops nationally to our ethnic-minority customers and communities.

Ethnicity Advisory Council

In 2021 we re-established our Ethnicity Advisory Council, made up of diversity and inclusion leaders and specialists, to provide critical challenge, guidance and direction on our ethnicity and inclusion strategy.