NatWest: Dame Alison Rose - what did she do and what is happening to her £5.2m long-term share options?

Previously known as "a role model in financial services" Dame Alison Rose suffered significant blows to her career after she was effectively forced to step down in July after acknowledging she discussed the former UKIP leader Nigel Farage's private banking arrangements with a BBC journalist. 

Now she is weighing the options to challenge a decision by NatWest to cancel millions of pounds in unvested share awards she was due to receive. However, it is unknown if she will mount a legal challenge if the board proceeds.

But who is Dame Alison Rose and what did she do? Here is what you need to know.  

Who is Dame Alison Rose? 

Dame Rose was born in 1969 to a military family and settled back into the UK when she was 15 years of age. Despite graduating with a degree in History from Durham University, she is a British banker who was the CEO of NatWest from November 2019 to July 2023, after beginning her finance career with the company, starting as a graduate trainee in 1992.  

She made history by becoming the first woman to lead a major UK lender after the UK government led an investigation into the poor representation of women in business. In 2014, she was appointed as a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland's executive committee where she announced new plans for the bank to introduce more women into decision-level and board-level positions. 

Throughout her career, she repeatedly advocated to include more women in business, and in 2018, she was nominated to lead the Treasury's review focusing on barriers for women in business, whilst becoming the deputy chief executive of NatWest Holdings. A year later, in November 2019, she became the first woman to lead a major UK lender, and in 2023 was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 Birthday Honours.

She stepped down from her role in June 2023. The Lloyds chief executive, Charlie Nunn, said he “really respected Alison as a role model in financial services. Some of the leadership, especially around topics like sustainability and female entrepreneurs, has been great and I’ll miss her in that context”.

How was she involved in the Nigel Farage Coutts bank scandal?

In June 2023, the private bank Coutts, which is owned by NatWest, closed the account held by Nigel Farage. Initially, the bank claimed that he did not meet Coutts's eligibility criteria of holding £1,000,000 or more in his account, and the story was picked up by UK press. He said in an X, formerly known as Twitter, video that he was made to feel like a non-person after several different lenders refused him from opening personal and business accounts.

He explained fears that he would soon be unable to borrow money, obtain a mortgage or have a debit or credit card linked to a UK account which could force him to leave the country. However, in an internal dossier, Coutts wrote that he "is at best seen as xenophobic and pandering to racists" and considered a "disingenuous grifter". 

However, a front-page story by The Daily Telegraph revealed that Dame Rose dined with Simon Jack, the BBC reporter, the evening before he published an article saying that the decision had been "for commercial reasons" which led to MPs Peter Bone and David Jones calling for her to resign. Dame Rose was accused of holding responsibility to close Farage's accounts which led to her resignation after she admitted to a "serious error of judgment" in discussing Farage's Coutts accounts.

What is happening to Dame Alison Rose's £5.2m long-term share options

Since resigning, a public filing by NatWest revealed Dame Rose has been receiving her annual £2.4m package - which includes base salary, pension contribution and a share-based fixed-pay allowance.

She is also eligible to be considered for a pro-rata portion of the £2.9m annual bonus and long-term share awards that made up the remainder of her total maximum pay package of £5.3m, and she holds roughly 2.5m unvested shares in the lender. 

A source close to the process told Sky News earlier this month it was "inconceivable" that she would be awarded any discretionary pay for 2023, and said it was "highly likely" the bank would cancel the unvested shares, although they admitted that the latter move, if implemented, could become the subject of a legal challenge, and the government expects to be consulted on the final terms of her exit package.