NatWest chief executive Alison Rose has refused to attend a hearing of the House of Commons Treasury select committee next week, telling MPs that she is “too busy” ahead of the state-backed bank’s full-year results, according to people briefed on the dispute.
Committee chair Harriett Baldwin called Rose on Tuesday to emphasise that MPs wanted the most senior banking executives to attend, said these people. Baldwin was rebuffed by Rose, who was made a dame in the new year’s honours list.
One of the main items on the Treasury committee’s agenda at its hearing on Tuesday is why leading high-street banks are being slow to pass on the benefits of rising interest rates to savers, said one person familiar with the plans.
MPs have been “inundated” with complaints from constituents about the issue, added this person.
The Treasury committee hearing will also focus on how Britons are coping with their mortgage costs amid rising interest rates, as well as changes to UK financial services regulation, including the scrapping of a banker bonus cap.
NatWest has proposed that David Lindberg, head of its retail bank, attend the hearing instead of Rose.
Other bosses due to attend the hearing include Charlie Nunn, Lloyds Banking Group chief executive, and Ian Stuart, chief executive of HSBC’s UK bank. Matt Hammerstein is taking the place of Barclays boss CS Venkatakrishnan, who is undergoing treatment for cancer.
“I am very keen that all the major banks’ top executives appear before our committee,” Baldwin told the Financial Times. “I am particularly keen that it should not be an all-male panel, because we want to send out a message to younger women in banking that they can reach the very top.”
NatWest said: “As the chief executive of our retail bank, serving 16mn customers, David Lindberg is directly responsible for these critical consumer issues and is an appropriate representative for NatWest Group at the hearing next week.”
Andrea Leadsom, a former Conservative minister and member of the Treasury committee, said the no-show by Rose would be “extremely disappointing”.
“Almost every major UK bank CEO will attend this crucial hearing into why interest rate rises do not appear to be fully passed on to savers,” she added.
Since December 2021, the Bank of England has increased its benchmark interest rate from 0.1 per cent to 3.5 per cent to try to curb high inflation.
Major banks with operations on the UK high street currently offer standard rates of less than 1 per cent on most easy access savings accounts, according to Moneyfacts.
By contrast, some banks with only an online presence in the UK have much more attractive rates. JPMorgan’s Chase UK is currently offering 2.7 per cent, while Goldman Sachs’s Marcus UK has 2.5 per cent for the first 12 months.
Meanwhile, lenders have raised the cost of their mortgage products as interest rates have increased.
The average interest on a two-year fixed-rate mortgage is 5.44 per cent, according to Moneyfacts, compared to 2.44 per cent a year ago.
The government is the largest NatWest shareholder, with a 46 per cent stake, a legacy of the bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland during the financial crisis.
Additional reporting by Jim Pickard and Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan in London
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