Alternative Remedies Package
History
In 2009, the European Commission approved a number of state aid measures granted to The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (“RBS”). This approval was given on the basis of a restructuring plan submitted by RBS and a number of commitments given by the UK Government in 2009 and subsequently amended in 2014, including the divestment of a part of RBS’ branch-based retail and small and medium-sized enterprise (“SME”) business, which later became known as ‘Williams and Glyn’ (the “Divestment”).
As a result of considerable challenges in achieving the Divestment, the UK Government proposed substituting the 2014 commitments with a revised package of measures with the aim of achieving the objective of promoting competition in the market for banking services to SMEs that lay behind the Divestment. The Alternative Remedies Package was agreed in principle in July 2017 and formally approved by the European Commission on 18 September 2017.
RBS Group changed its group name to NatWest Group in 2020 and throughout the rest of the website is referred to as NatWest.
The Alternative Remedies Package
The package consisted of two elements:
- £425m Capability & Innovation Fund to provide grants to Awardees to help them improve their banking capabilities for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises [Agreements terminated on 31 December 2022]; and
- Up to £275m for an Incentivised Switching Scheme to provide funding to Participants, in order to financially incentivise NatWest’s Williams and Glyn SME banking customers to switch their business current accounts to the Participants. This Scheme closed on 30 June 2021.
Incentivised Switching Scheme
The purpose of the Incentivised Switching Scheme was to provide funding of up to a maximum of £275 million to Participants to use as incentives to encourage SME banking customers (with an annual turnover of £25 million or less) to switch their business current accounts and loans to the Incentivised Switching Scheme Participants; up to £225 million of the fund was available in “dowries” with respect to any Relevant Customers that agreed to transfer their business current account. Up to £50 million was available for loan related dowries.
Capability and Innovation Fund
The purpose of the Capability and Innovation Fund was to encourage Awardees to:
- develop and improve their capability to compete with RBS in the provision of banking services to SMEs; and
- develop and improve the financial products and services which are available to SMEs.
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