The boss of one of Britain’s biggest banks has accused John Healey of lacking ‘ambition’ in his maiden Budget this week.
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boss → accuse → Budget
‘If you want a growth strategy it has to look beyond balancing the books,’ NatWest chief executive Paul Thwaite said in an apparent swipe at the Chancellor.
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Thwaite → want → Chancellor
‘We want to turn some of the resilience we are seeing in the UK economy into momentum and that’s going to require greater ambition and long-term stability, whether it’s tax, spending, planning, regulation.
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it → want → ambition
'They are some of the topics that need to feed into a growth strategy.’
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that → need → strategy
Pointing to next year’s Spending Review and Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s ten-year plan for national renewal, Thwaite added: ‘The UK’s growth isn’t going to be determined by one Budget or a single event.
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growth → point → Budget
‘I think they will be as much if not more significant indicators for the long-term direction of the UK.’
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they → think → UK
NatWest boss Paul Thwaite calls for 'greater ambition' to turbocharge UK economy
The comments came a day after a top executive at Lloyds branded Labour’s Budget tax raid on banks ‘unhelpful’.
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executive → call → banks
Lloyds finance chief William Chalmers said ‘additional taxes are unhelpful’ in achieving two major objectives for the British economy – ‘growth’ and ‘international competitiveness’.
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taxes → say → economy
Thwaite appeared to shrug off the doubling in the bank surcharge to 6 per cent in the Budget.
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Thwaite → appear → Budget
Bank shares rose on news of the lower-than-expected windfall tax announced by Healey – who was thought to be planning to raise it to 8 per cent.
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who → rise → cent
Asked if that reaction suggested banks had got off lightly, Thwaite said: ‘It doesn’t change our approach in terms of how we run the bank.
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we → ask → bank
We’re going to run it in the interests of all of our stakeholders.
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We → go → stakeholders
We need to be competitive for our customer and we need to deliver good returns for our shareholders.
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we → need → shareholders
The temporary increase in the windfall tax, which is limited to 15 months and is due to raise the Treasury £1.5billion, provided ‘welcome clarity’, he added.
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he → limit → clarity
Thwaite was speaking after NatWest unveiled slightly better than expected third-quarter results.
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NatWest → speak → results
The banking group reported an operating pre-tax profit of £2.2billion for the three months to September, which was about 2 per cent higher than the same period last year.
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which → bank → period
It made around £3.6billion in net interest income – the difference between what banks make from loans and what they pay out on deposits – which was a jump of nearly 9 per cent compared with the year before.
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which → make → year
NatWest joins other high street lenders including Lloyds and Barclays that have reported an income increase while interest rates have remained high.
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rates → join → increase
It also hailed the progress it had made towards becoming a simpler and technology-driven bank.
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it → hail → progress
This has led to the reduction of about 1,000 full-time staff in the quarter, bringing the total of jobs lost to 1,400 so far this year.
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This → lead → 1,400
However, the recent acquisition of wealth manager Evelyn Partners has brought around 2,200 staff into the group, driving up its overall headcount.
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acquisition → bring → headcount
NatWest said it had managed to make cost savings of around £420million, helping bring down its cost-to-income ratio – the amount it spends on running the business as a percentage of what it generates in income – to 45.7 per cent for the year-to-date.
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it → say → date
This has been helped by investment into technology including AI tools, with recent trials of a spending insights helper and a fraud agent for credit card customers.
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This → help → customers
Thwaite said: ‘As we help more customers to save and invest, buy a home or expand their businesses, we continue to see broad-based growth in our three customer franchises, with lending, deposits and assets under management all increasing during the quarter.’
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lending → say → quarter
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This → take → commission
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