NatWest and Talan redefined what data governance can achieve in financial services. By transforming marketing permissions management for 19 million customers, the partnership combined regulatory compliance with improved customer trust, delivering more than £40 million in commercial value during 2025 and creating a governance framework built to last.
When regulatory expectations around GDPR and PECR evolved, NatWest recognised that meeting compliance requirements alone would not be enough. Working with Talan, the bank used the opportunity to rethink how customer marketing permissions were managed across the organisation, creating a single, trusted framework that gives customers greater control over their data while enabling better business decisions.
This award celebrates effective data governance improving organisational performance and customer outcomes. Rather than viewing governance as a necessary control, NatWest embedded it as a strategic capability, simplifying a fragmented permissions landscape and creating a more transparent relationship with millions of customers.
Rebuilding around trust
The ePrivacy Programme spanned NatWest’s Retail, Business, Wealth, and International franchises, tackling years of accumulated complexity across marketing permissions. Customer consent records had developed across multiple systems, brands, and products, making it increasingly difficult to maintain a consistent view of individual preferences.
The programme focused on three core objectives:
- Give customers greater control over how they are contacted.
- Make consent easier to understand.
- Create a consistent approach to permissions across the organisation.
More than 13 million customers were invited to review and update their marketing preferences through redesigned customer journeys. Consent communications were rewritten in plain English, replacing technical and legal language with clearer explanations of how customer data would be used and why those choices mattered.
NatWest consolidated previously fragmented consent records into a single governed datastore, establishing one authoritative source of truth for marketing permissions across every franchise, brand, and channel. This created a consistent foundation for both governance and day-to-day decision-making.
“This entry masterfully reframes a defensive compliance task into a commercial offensive with exceptional clarity of purpose and impact. It is a standout use‑case‑driven governance programme with rare, compelling commercial evidence.” – Judges’ comments
Turning governance into business value
The work by Talan and NatWest demonstrates that strong data governance can generate value well beyond regulatory compliance.
Marketing teams now have access to a single, reliable view of customer permissions, supported by business intelligence dashboards providing real-time insight into consent levels, channel preferences, and campaign performance. With greater confidence in the underlying data, teams can engage customers through channels they have actively chosen, improving effectiveness and trust.
The measurable impact has been significant. NatWest now markets compliantly to more than 80% of Wealth customers and over 75% of Retail and Business Banking customers, substantially increasing its addressable audience while ensuring communications reflect customer preferences.
That improved quality of customer engagement translated directly into commercial performance. More than 60% of the uplift in marketing return on investment came from customers who chose to change their marketing preference from “No” to “Yes” during the re-permissioning exercise. Overall, the programme generated more than £40 million in commercial value during 2025, while marketability outreach increased by more than 200%.
By making consent easier to understand and honouring customer preferences consistently across the organisation, NatWest strengthened customer trust, reflected in improved Net Promoter Scores.
A future of evolving ownership and controls
The partnership between NatWest and Talan was designed to create enduring capability rather than deliver a one-off compliance programme. Clear ownership of permissions data, embedded governance standards, and robust controls ensure the framework can continue to evolve alongside customer expectations and regulatory requirements.
The programme provides a model for how cross-functional collaboration can deliver better outcomes. Bringing together expertise from marketing, data, technology, legal, risk, and governance enabled the bank to simplify one of its most complex data challenges without losing sight of the customer experience.
By treating regulatory change as an opportunity to improve transparency, strengthen governance, and build trust, NatWest and Talan have demonstrated that data governance can be a driver of sustainable business growth. Their work sets a compelling benchmark for the financial services sector, showing that when governance is designed around customer needs as well as organisational requirements, it delivers lasting value for both.
