The future of banking isn’t arriving—it’s already here. But for Dame Alison Rose, former chief executive of NatWest Group, the question isn’t what will change. It’s how well financial institutions will adapt. Her transition into new roles post-NatWest is covered in this article, where she continues shaping the financial and legal sectors alike.
Rose spent over 30 years at the heart of UK banking, and during her leadership at NatWest from 2019 to 2023, she helped shift the industry toward a more digital, customer-centric model. Her predictions for 2028 are grounded not in tech optimism, but in the practical demands of trust, accessibility, and sustainability in an era of transformation. Crunchbase offers a snapshot of her leadership history and strategic advisory work beyond NatWest.
One of Rose’s core beliefs is that digital-first cannot mean human-last. While she acknowledges the rise of AI-driven services, embedded finance, and open banking ecosystems, she’s quick to note that technology must enhance—not replace—the relational trust that banks are built on. By 2028, she sees banks leveraging advanced data tools to offer hyper-personalized financial advice, but only if they maintain ethical guardrails and transparency.
She also forecasts a deepening of partnership-driven innovation. Banks will no longer try to build every tool in-house. Instead, they’ll act as orchestrators—curating secure, user-friendly fintech partnerships that plug into core infrastructure. During her time at NatWest, Rose championed this model, launching digital accelerators and incubators that aligned startup innovation with institutional rigor.
Dame Alison Rose on the future of leadership, tech, and sustainability offers a deeper look at her guiding principles for innovation. Sustainability, too, will move from PR campaign to product offering. Rose sees a future where digital banking platforms provide real-time insight into the environmental impact of purchases, loans, and investments—offering customers not just convenience, but conscience.
Another key shift she anticipates is financial inclusion by design. As services digitize, Rose stresses that access must remain equitable. That means ensuring mobile-first tools work across income levels and digital literacy rates, and that customer support doesn’t vanish behind automation. The banks that thrive in 2028, she believes, will be those that combine sleek UX with real-world empathy.
Ultimately, Dame Alison Rose’s vision of the future is grounded in values. Innovation, in her view, only succeeds when it serves people. Banking in 2028 will be faster, smarter, and more seamless—but only if it remains personal, responsible, and inclusive.
Because progress without purpose, she warns, is just noise. And the future of finance should be anything but that.