RBS scraps bonuses for 20,000 retail staff

rbsRoyal Bank of Scotland has said it is scrapping sales bonuses for staff working at the 73 per cent taxpayer-owned lender’s retail banks.

To compensate, the roughly 20,000 staff selling products such mortgages, credit cards and loans to individuals and businesses will get an average 5 per cent pay rise. The Edinburgh-based bank said.

The move will come into force on January 1 and will affect staff working across RBS and its sister brand NatWest.

The bank said the new system was simpler and fairer, and would put less pressure on staff on sell products.



It also claimed to be the first major UK bank to take this step.

“We’re determined to keep doing things differently and we can only continue to rebuild our customers’ trust if they truly believe that we are completely focused on helping them with their financial needs - which is why we will scrap all incentives for customer-facing employees,” said Les Matheson, head of personal and business banking at NatWest and RBS.

Les Matheson
Les Matheson

The move will also ensure that staff at less busy branches will not lose out compared with those doing the same job at busier outlets.

There have been calls from independent bodies to change the way retail bank staff are paid following various mis-selling scandals, such as payment protection insurance, known as PPI, credit card fraud protection and swaps.

Scrapping bonuses only applies to staff working in retail banking, not investment banking, which is where the huge losses were made that led to government intervention.

The news was welcomed by Which? and the group’s executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: “It’s good to see RBS making this positive change to enable staff to focus on customers’ needs rather than sales.

“We want to see all banks and the regulators focused squarely on delivering cultural reform across the industry.”

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