NatWest chief says bank will turn to AI to "improve efficiency"

PAUL Thwaite, the new Chief Executive of NatWest has told the company's annual general meeting that AI can be used to improve efficiency in more than 100 areas of the business.

Speaking at the event in Edinburgh today, Mr Thwaite (pictured) said artificial intelligence projects would be used for “prioritising bank-wide simplification to become more efficient and effective”.

“A bank-wide exercise in 2023 identified over 100 priority use cases for AI to address manual operations processes and wider controls,” he stated.

“Ultimately, we want to build a NatWest Group that is simpler and more productive to better serve our customers.”

The banking boss has been the CEO of NatWest for two months following the dramatic resignation of Dame Alison Rose over the 'de-banking' of Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

The bank's chairman - Rick Haythornthwaite - who was appointed last month, said the bank needed to keep pace with a rapidly-evolving sector and faced several challenges.

“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 said.

“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.”

NatWest Group also announced a yearly operating pre-tax profit of £6.2 billion - the highest figure since the UK government stepped in to bail it out.