Financial Services

Finding new purpose in IT decision-making

NatWest is a familiar name on the U.K High Street. The bank was founded in 1968, serves 19 million customers, and operates branches across the whole of the UK. It also has bold plans for what the bank of the future might look like.

"As an IT team, we've become a lot more conscious of the environmental impact of our decisions," says Mark Holden, Head of Data Networks , NatWest Group. "There is now an emphasis on assessing our impact and reporting progress."

With banking becoming an increasingly mobile and online experience for many, NatWest must continue to strengthen its digital infrastructure. Making these investments in a way that supports long-term value, while reducing unnecessary waste, is critical . Holden recognized an opportunity to rethink how the bank disposed of its end-of-life IT equipment.

"Previously, our priority was simply to secure the data. Disposing of aging equipment was managed locally, and there was no central strategy or formal process," he explains.

Centralizing recycling end-of-life IT equipment

Cisco Customer Recycling Solutions is helping transform how NatWest manages its IT hardware. It enables NatWest to establish, for the first time, a consistent process for disposing of obsolete equipment. Disposal processes comply with all applicable regulations, including data security.

A central team now works across NatWest's U.K. operations. 

"We piloted it ourselves first," says Holden. "But this has not been a difficult service to 'sell' to local teams. It's a good-news story: we're taking in old equipment and providing a report to show the sustainability gain."

Cisco Customer Recycling Solutions ensures products are disassembled and then processed to retrieve materials such as steel, aluminum, copper, plastics, shredded circuit boards, and cables. These materials are then returned to the market where they are made into new products. Overall, more than 99 percent of the electronics sent for processing are recycled. NatWest then receives a Certificate of Recycling. 

"Previously, the objective was to destroy old equipment," says Seun Akiode, Technology Scrum Master, NatWest Group. "Now there is far more consideration of the circular economy. There is value in some of this old hardware."

Demonstrating progress on sustainability goals

Cisco Customer Recycling Solutions was adopted in 2023. The uptake, says Holden, has been beyond expectations. In 2023, 562 end-of-life devices were recycled (totaling 14,471 kilograms); in the first five months of 2024, the figures rose to 2738 devices and 85,118 kilograms.

Just as importantly, it hands Holden and his team the evidence to demonstrate their progress. 

"We do this because it is the right thing to do," says Holden, "but it's also important that the business, colleagues, and other business units understand the changes that are being made. As we bring new, energy efficient equipment into the business we can now prove that we are recycling and repurposing effectively."

Cisco Customer Recycling Solutions, Holden continues, must be viewed as one element in a suite of sustainability initiatives. NatWest has built an app, Giki Zero, to help colleagues track their carbon footprint; it has partnered with the University of Edinburgh Centre for Business, Climate Change, and Sustainability to create a training module for staff; and it is working with leading sustainability brand Reborn to recycle plastic cards and card readers in a fraud-secure and sustainable process.

"Thinking in a more circular way is helping to reshape how we architect new IT solutions," Holden explains. "Previously, our thinking would have been on bigger and faster services. We still want speed and scale, but we're also now factoring in energy and environmental impacts into first-design principles."