Archives

June 8, 2024 @ 9:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Customers are prioritizing spending on entertainment while cutting back on home decorating, new data from UK’s NatWest Group has revealed. The latest debit card spending data from NatWest, “comprising the anonymized transactions of almost 10 million customers, shows recreation spending increased 10% (10.21%) in April… Read More

June 4, 2024 @ 10:50 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Entrepreneurs looking to grow and scale their businesses are being urged to apply to join one of the UK’s leading accelerators, as NatWest prepares to welcome a record number of new businesses on its accelerator program in September. Up to 2500 places will be “available… Read More

May 30, 2024 @ 8:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

NatWest has extended access to Business Savings from Mastercard to business debit card customers. Business Savings is a merchant discount program “provided by Mastercard which gives small business customers access to merchant offers when paying with an eligible Business Mastercard at merchants participating in the… Read More

May 16, 2024 @ 8:31 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK consumers are expecting to save more this year yet are unaware that the interest earned on their savings could result in being eligible to pay tax, according to an update from NatWest. Almost a third (31%) of savers are “expecting to save more and… Read More

May 14, 2024 @ 8:32 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Business activity continued to rise across almost all UK nations and regions during April, latest Regional PMI survey data from NatWest showed. Just half of areas saw an increase in employment, however, with businesses “facing a sharp, wage-led rise in costs.” The PMI Business Activity… Read More

April 17, 2024 @ 7:46 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Latest NatWest Regional PMI survey data showed business activity rising almost universally across the UK in March, “supported by a general upturn in demand.” Trends in employment remained “more mixed, with just over half of areas seeing growth in job numbers amid still-strong cost pressures.”… Read More

March 26, 2024 @ 8:54 am By Omar Faridi  |  

NatWest Group has announced a new package of targeted lending and support for UK social housing, aimed at supporting local housing authorities and homeowners alike in the face of ongoing economic pressures. Through a new ambition of £5billion of lending (New funding gross of repayments… Read More

March 23, 2024 @ 2:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

NatWest will work with JS Group, an innovative partner to universities with a track record of improving the delivery of specialist student funds and of strengthening student engagement, to support more students as they progress within the UK’s higher education system. It’s said to be… Read More

March 15, 2024 @ 6:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

NatWest Group has announced a strategic minority investment in Icon Solutions, a fintech provider of payments technology and consultancy services. The investment follows the news last September that NatWest “selected Icon Payments Framework (IPF) to accelerate the bank’s payments modernisation.” Launched in 2020, IPF is… Read More

March 12, 2024 @ 10:40 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The latest NatWest Regional PMI survey showed business activity “growing across most parts of the UK in February.” Business confidence also generally picked up amid “a more broad-based improvement in underlying demand.” Labor market trends remained more varied, however, “with firms in most areas reporting… Read More

February 18, 2024 @ 12:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The New Startup Index from NatWest and Beauhurst has found that over 900,000 new companies were incorporated in the UK in 2023, making it a record year for new businesses. The startup boom brings the number of active companies “operating in the UK to 5.31m,… Read More

February 9, 2024 @ 11:20 am By JD Alois  |  

NatWest says it is the first UK bank to join the UK Open Banking DPS or Dynamic Purchasing System. As explained by the UK government: “… frameworks – otherwise known as agreements – help public and third sector buyers to procure goods and services from… Read More

February 4, 2024 @ 6:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Two in three (66%) larger UK businesses say they are very familiar with open banking and users report an average annual saving of 150 hours usually spent “on operational tasks such as processing invoices and financial data, recurring payments and processing refunds, new research reveals.”… Read More

January 30, 2024 @ 7:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Prince’s Trust NatWest Youth Index 2024, released recently, finds half (49 per cent) of 16–25-year-olds in the UK think the cost of living crisis has had a worse impact on their life than the pandemic. As noted by the Natwest Group, it shows young… Read More

January 29, 2024 @ 3:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

NatWest is planning to close 30 more bank branches in 2024, according to a report by GBNews. This most recent revelation of branch closures just adds to the dozens of closures that have taken place in recent months. The report lists the locations of the… Read More

January 22, 2024 @ 7:58 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Business activity at UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expanded at the fastest rate for seven months in December, “led by renewed growth in the service economy.” Adding to signs of a steady turnaround in business conditions, new orders “stabilized at the end of 2023,… Read More

January 17, 2024 @ 9:21 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

NatWest has launched an Energy Help and Support tool to help UK businesses reduce their energy usage, cut their carbon emissions and potentially “save money on their energy bills this winter.” Research from the bank has found “that 45% of small businesses say rising energy… Read More

January 14, 2024 @ 5:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

High growth businesses generally own few tangible assets, but can be rich in IP and intangible assets, according to an update shared by NatWest Group. These businesses can find it difficult “to use their assets as collateral to secure growth funding, especially when compared with… Read More

December 21, 2023 @ 8:06 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Over a quarter (27%) of British small and medium-sized businesses have “admitted to being owed between £5,000 and £20,000 in unpaid invoices” according to research by Payit, NatWest’s open banking payments solution. The impact of late payments has been felt “across the country, with SMEs… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 9:41 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Growth of the UK economy in November was reportedly centered on London, according to the latest NatWest Regional PMI survey. Inflationary pressures were also strongest in the capital, “with firms there recording the steepest rises in both input costs and average prices charged for goods… Read More