Extending the benefits
Spurred by the ongoing success of the workshops – bringing our colleagues’ expertise into the places where customers learn, work and socialise – our ambition is to help many more people manage their money and plan for the future with greater financial confidence.
In February 2026, we announced a major expansion of the Financial Foundations programme to help support 50,000 people with free financial education and guidance throughout 2026 in their workplace or community group.
We have also recently confirmed the addition of a new financial education module to Financial Foundations to help demystify investing. The new investment-focused workshop, which will be available nationwide from May 2026, builds on existing workshops about budgeting, saving and planning for the future and has been designed to help more people understand the basics of investing and build financial confidence.
To help realise this ambition, NatWest Group is training an additional 300 colleagues to become facilitators to deliver sessions across the UK. These new facilitators will join an existing network of around 400 colleagues who already deliver practical, in-person workshops nationwide.
By expanding the programme, we believe we can help drive real benefits in the workplace: supporting employee financial wellbeing, which we hope in turn, should enhance engagement, productivity and retention.
As well as Financial Foundations, NatWest also offers free, confidential one-to-one Worksite Financial Health Checks (FHCs) to employees of business customers who want more personalised support no matter who they bank with. FHCs, which are also available in branch and on videocall, are delivered by a trained Senior Personal Banker and designed to help people take charge of their finances and work towards their goals with confidence.
We’re also evolving Cora our AI digital assistant, so we can help more people get to grips with their finances. We are one of the first banks to launch ‘Spending Chat’ functionality, currently being piloted within the app, aimed at helping customers better understand their spending. Spending Chat is the very first step in a journey towards enabling Cora to act like a financial coach, with the intention of giving customers greater money confidence.
Through all our initiatives, I’m proud of the role we’re playing in bringing financial education into the workplace and helping people feel more in control of their lives. For me, this is what banking is all about – being there in ways that truly matter and what succeeding with our customers looks like in practice.
