NatWest Partners with OpenAI to Revolutionize Digital Banking and Combat Fraud

NatWest seals milestone UK banking collaboration with OpenAI

LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - NatWest (NWG.L), opens new tab and OpenAI have joined forces to enhance the lender's digital assistants and customer support processes using artificial intelligence, in the first collaboration of its kind with a UK-headquartered bank. The lender has put AI at the heart of key strategies to improve customer experience, cut costs and play its part to reduce the sums lost to financial fraud across the industry. Under terms of the agreement, NatWest will have access to all OpenAI products and secure early visibility and access to the AI group's product pipeline, as well as bespoke consultancy and executive input. In one of more than 275 AI projects the bank is exploring, NatWest wants to harness Open AI's technology to ramp up the capabilities of its customer-facing chatbot Cora and its virtual assistant for staff, AskArchie. At present, the majority of customers prefer to report suspected fraud by phone, a preference NatWest is hoping to reverse using generative AI. In the first half of 2024, just over 570 million pounds ($740 million) was stolen in payment fraud in Britain, with scammers deploying increasingly creative ways to trap victims, data from UK Finance shows. By streamlining the process of reporting suspected fraud using Cora, NatWest aims to secure vulnerable accounts faster and free up call handlers to deal with other customer needs. NatWest also believes its AI-powered digital assistants may help customers better understand their finances, which could help them plan better. "AI is already playing a vital role in our digital transformation; helping colleagues across the bank to serve customers in a more personalised and productive way," NatWest Group Chief Information Officer Scott Marcar said. The GenAI functionality offered by Cora has helped to drive a 150% improvement in customer satisfaction levels and reduce the number of times a human adviser is called on to complete the request, the bank said. "Around 80% of our retail customers bank with us entirely digitally, which is why continually innovating to deliver the best digital experience possible is a non-negotiable," NatWest's retail banking CEO Angela Byrne said. OpenAI was co-founded by Sam Altman and Elon Musk in 2015 with a vision to develop AI for the good of humanity rather than corporate profit. The firm is now trying to transition into a for-profit entity, which it says is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models. ($1 = 0.7698 pounds) Reporting by Sinead Cruise Editing by Mark Potter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

NatWest inks collaboration deal with OpenAI

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. In a first for a UK-headquartered bank NatWest will receive access to all of OpenAI's products and get early access to future tools, as well as bespoke consultancy and executive access. The bank is already exploring more than 275 projects involving AI and is keen to use the ChatGPT maker to turbocharge its customer chatbot Cora and staff assistant ASkArchie. NatWest originally gave Cora a GenAI boost last summer, working with IBM to ensure the bot can provide more nuanced, pro-active answers to customer queries. The bank is particularly keen on using AI to help customers with more complex tasks, including the identification, reporting and resolution of fraud and scams. Angela Byrne, CEO, retail banking, NatWest, says: "Around 80% of our retail customers bank with us entirely digitally, which is why continually innovating to deliver the best digital experience possible is a non-negotiable. "GenAI is already transforming how we interact with our customers, both digitally and by better enabling colleagues. Our work with OpenAI will take this even further through redefined digital experiences and helping to offer even better protection from threats like fraud and financial crime." There has been some concern about lacklustre AI adoption among UK lenders. Next month, the FCA will host a roundtable with banking industry leaders over worries that onerous compliance requirements are stifling investment in the technology. NatWest is not just working with the AI giants; earlier this year it made a minority investment in Serene, an early-stage AI platform dedicated to tackling financial vulnerability.

NatWest Is OpenAI's Third Major Banking Partner, Follows UK Bank Layoffs and Bank Closures

OpenAI has established significant partnerships with three major banks: NatWest, BNY Mellon, and BBVA. | Credit: SOPA Images / Getty Images. British banking group NatWest has announced it will become the first U.K. bank to partner with OpenAI. This partnership follows the U.K.-based bank's announcement of widespread layoffs and branch closures as the financial sector continues shifting toward greater reliance on artificial intelligence. NatWest Partners With OpenAI The collaboration between NatWest and OpenAI, announced on Thursday, March 20, will build on the bank's current AI virtual assistants: Cora+ and AskArchie+. Launched in 2024, Cora+ is a generative AI upgrade to the company's long-standing virtual assistant. The upgrade provided customers with a smoother and more human-like conversational experience. With the new OpenAI partnership, NatWest hopes to push Cora+ further "to help meet more consumer banking needs," the bank said in a press release . "The wide-ranging, large-scale collaboration has the potential to accelerate how quickly and widely NatWest can deploy some of the latest and most powerful developments in generative AI," it wrote. NatWest Group Chief Information Officer Scott Marcar said the partnership will provide colleagues with "even more sophisticated tools to assist them" when dealing with customers and fraud prevention. "AI is already playing a vital role in our digital transformation, helping colleagues across the bank to serve customers in a more personalized and productive way," Marcar said. "We now have the potential to accelerate this even further by accessing OpenAI's newest technologies and expertise," he added. NatWest Closures and Layoffs The banking AI partnership follows a number of NatWest store closures and layoffs. In 2024, NatWest announced it was closing its business in Poland , which would result in the loss of 1,600 bank staff members. The bank said it was consolidating its financial crime operations into two hubs in India and Britain. According to a bank spokesperson, 45% of the jobs would be eliminated, while the remaining 55% would be transferred to the other two countries. A total of 53 NatWest branches will close across the U.K. before June 2025, according to TimeOut . AI Partnerships and Job Displacement OpenAI has established significant partnerships with three major banks: NatWest, BNY Mellon, and BBVA. These partnerships highlight the finance industry's growing reliance on AI systems. In February 2025, America's oldest bank, BNY Mellon, entered into a multi-year agreement with OpenAI to integrate advanced AI tools into its internal platform, Eliza. Global bank BBVA made headlines in November 2024 when it widely integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise across its organization. The bank said it leveraged OpenAI's GenAI to boost efficiency and streamline processes. Beyond finance, the rapid rise of AI has led to a flurry of workforce reductions across multiple industries. In January 2025, the World Economic Forum surveyed 1,000 global employers and found that 41% of company leaders believe they must reduce their workforce over the next five years. The company leaders, employing more than 14.1 million workers across 22 industries, predicted that a large group of workers would become obsolete due to AI. In 2024, over 150,000 tech employees were laid off across more than 525 companies, according to layoffs.fyi , as Big Tech firms realign their workforce strategies.

NatWest partners with OpenAI to boost digital customer support By Investing.com

Investing.com -- UK-based NatWest (LON:NWG) has teamed up with OpenAI to improve its digital assistants and customer support procedures using artificial intelligence (AI). This marks the first time that OpenAI has partnered with a bank headquartered in the UK. As per the agreement, NatWest will gain access to all OpenAI products. This includes securing early visibility and access to the AI group's product pipeline. In addition, NatWest will also receive custom consultancy and executive input from OpenAI. This partnership is designed to enhance NatWest's digital customer support processes, by leveraging the advanced AI technology offered by OpenAI.

NatWest seals milestone UK banking collaboration with OpenAI

LONDON (Reuters) - NatWest and OpenAI have joined forces to enhance the lender's digital assistants and customer support processes using artificial intelligence, in the first collaboration of its kind with a UK-headquartered bank. The lender has put AI at the heart of key strategies to improve customer experience, cut costs and play its part to reduce the sums lost to financial fraud across the industry. Under terms of the agreement, NatWest will have access to all OpenAI products and secure early visibility and access to the AI group's product pipeline, as well as bespoke consultancy and executive input. In one of more than 275 AI projects the bank is exploring, NatWest wants to harness Open AI's technology to ramp up the capabilities of its customer-facing chatbot Cora and its virtual assistant for staff, AskArchie. At present, the majority of customers prefer to report suspected fraud by phone, a preference NatWest is hoping to reverse using generative AI. In the first half of 2024, just over 570 million pounds ($740 million) was stolen in payment fraud in Britain, with scammers deploying increasingly creative ways to trap victims, data from UK Finance shows. By streamlining the process of reporting suspected fraud using Cora, NatWest aims to secure vulnerable accounts faster and free up call handlers to deal with other customer needs. NatWest also believes its AI-powered digital assistants may help customers better understand their finances, which could help them plan better. "AI is already playing a vital role in our digital transformation; helping colleagues across the bank to serve customers in a more personalised and productive way," NatWest Group Chief Information Officer Scott Marcar said. The GenAI functionality offered by Cora has helped to drive a 150% improvement in customer satisfaction levels and reduce the number of times a human adviser is called on to complete the request, the bank said. "Around 80% of our retail customers bank with us entirely digitally, which is why continually innovating to deliver the best digital experience possible is a non-negotiable," NatWest's retail banking CEO Angela Byrne said. OpenAI was co-founded by Sam Altman and Elon Musk in 2015 with a vision to develop AI for the good of humanity rather than corporate profit. The firm is now trying to transition into a for-profit entity, which it says is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models. (Reporting by Sinead Cruise; Editing by Mark Potter)