NatWest

Their technology developed into a company called Aladdin.

A platform, BlackRock, also sells to other financial institutions, including the software that lots of the world's biggest branded banks, I know Coots and NatWest, for example, use it.

I mean, look, I think BlackRock or Blackstone own a huge majority in NatWest's group.

I mean, this is what I mean.

You think about them and go, oh, but you're probably using your bank and they probably own the biggest share of your bank.

Avon Holidays, Butlins.

I mean, like, they're...

You know, NatWest.

So it became a thing of having to do those new kind of jokes.

And Deacus and Delbert and the preacher, my name is the Reverend Nathaniel Westminster, but you can call me Nat West, you know, all that stuff.

That just became a thing of...

Yeah, these are the kind of jokes I'm doing now.

And he was always on site.

And one of my youngest memories or earliest memories was when he took me to the NatWest building at Carlisle and I was going up onto the roof on a lift which had no sides on it.

I was absolutely petrified and I was like five years old, but he wanted me to take me on the roof to show me the landscape.

And I think from there, I was always around construction and tinkering with things.

And today is no exception.

I'm joined by Siobhan Haverland, the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce and Soren Nicolarsson, Managing Director for Government and Industry Engagement, Defence and Trade at NatWest.

A warm welcome to you both.

Thank you for having us.

What's next? I want to take this model around the world, not just life sciences and not just Singapore, around the world, cross-sector, we can make it as big as we want to.

Fabulous.

And the reason we're here is because we are launching that trade accelerator, and that is all thanks to the team of the British Chambers of Commerce in the UK, but also to NatWest, who have been hugely supportive of this programme.

Soren, I've known you for five or six years, and it's been a privilege to work with you here in Singapore.

Welcome back to Trade Links, brought to you by NatWest.

My name's Tim Phillips.

Welcome back to our regular panel, Aastha Gupta, European Economist, Economics and Market Strategy at NatWest Markets.

Hello, Asta.

Hi, Tim.

And welcome back as well to Scott Livingstone, International Advisor, NatWest Group.

Hello again, Scott.

Hello, Tim.

And then, yeah.

Ian, I think it might be worth saying as well, those two banks, HSBC and Standard Chartered, they sit apart a bit from the other high street banks because they're so Asia-focused, whereas Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, they're much more UK-focused.

So it's really two kind of different levers that are being pulled, aren't they?

It is, Steve.

You mentioned UK banks.

We've got those still to come.

We've got Lloyds and NatWest to come.

And interestingly, they're up to the day and it's not the standard chartered effect.

I got into the financial world with Chemical Bank initially.

Then I was with NatWest Bank and then Swiss Bank.

But all the while, I'd also gotten into the music scene in New York.

I guess the itch, if you want to say, the memories of my mom, the music that I was listening to in the early 1990s.

is this usual we cannot verify if the money has come from um any of the accounts that have been checked peter and i

think the answer to that is i don't it's not it's not necessarily usual but not all banks provide all of the information um i do know um an example uh If you look at, for instance, RBS and NatWest, I think I'm right in saying that if you're looking online, For a sort of live view, you're in a similar situation where you don't get the full information, whereas when that's created into a statement, which of course is no good to you from an AML perspective, the information is there then.

So yes, that's a common problem.

Yeah, we've got another comment in more of an observation.