NatWest appoints lead for SME manufacturers

Mark Eastwood has joined the bank's specialist sector team as head of manufacturing for commercial banking. He joins Peter Russell, head of manufacturing for corporate and institutional banking, who looks after larger scale businesses in the industry. Eastwood has been in the banking sector for around 25 years and with the RBS Group for 10 where he has worked predominately within the SME market place. He said: "Over the past few months I have been working with our teams across the UK to develop a new model to help us support customers by focusing on our priorities for the sector. This includes supply chain, trade, apprentices, renewable energy and technology. "By focusing on these core areas and developing the expertise of our independently accredited relationship managers – accredited by Chartered Banker – I believe we can help support the manufacturing sector in emerging positively from the recession and continuing to make such a huge contribution to the UK and global economy."