NatWest bank uses technology to improve service in Welsh

Investment in new technology is helping NatWest bank enhance its Welsh language services at its North Wales Retail Customer Service Centre on Parc Menai, Bangor.

Since its inception in the early 1990s, the centre has operated from three sites across north west Wales, but those operations have now been amalgamated to improve service to NatWest customers across Wales.

The centre also provides back office support to NatWest branches across the region, and is central to NatWest’s Welsh language services.

The restructuring has involved a substantial investment in new technology, making it easier for customers to speak to an operator in their preferred language.

Fifty staff work at the centre providing a bilingual telephone service, and the bank is working on a Welsh language customer website which it hopes to launch later this year.

The Welsh Assembly’s Minister for Heritage, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, said on a visit to the site: “I am impressed at NatWest's commitment to providing customers with a Welsh language service and would hope other institutions would follow the example demonstrated by NatWest.”

David Austin, the centre’s manager, said: “There has been significant investment by NatWest to bring Menai Retail Customer Service Centre up to date with new equipment and create the environment for all of the existing teams to work together.

“The introduction of new technology enables customers to speak to an operator in their preferred language immediately.”