RBS rapped over advert vow to save rural branch it never had

PERCHED on the mainland’s northern tip, it is one of Scotland’s remotest communities, which one of the nation’s biggest institutions vowed to serve.

But Royal Bank of Scotland has been lambasted by the advertising watchdog after it claimed to be “the last bank in town” in the Sutherland village of Bettyhill, where it has never had a permanent branch.

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) upheld two complaints against RBS after it produced two television ads purporting to show a commitment to customers in rural locations.

The ads showed staff standing outside branches in far-flung locations, with a voiceover claiming it would “continue to provide banking services wherever we’re the last bank in town”. However, the watchdog has ruled the ads “misleading” and banned RBS from screening them again, pointing out viewers would believe the bank was dedicated to retaining bricks and mortar branches.

The slap on the wrist for RBS came after the ASA received complaints from a councillor and a member of the public – represented by the Campaign for Community Banking Services – in the Yorkshire commuter town of Farsley. After viewing the ads last June for RBS and Natwest – part of the RBS group – they told the watchdog that the bank had closed its Natwest branch, despite it being the last remaining bank there.

RBS insisted its commitment was to provide “banking services” and argued it had not said it would keep branches open.

But the ASA ruled: “Although we understood that, in Bettyhill, RBS had replaced a bank with a mobile bank, because we considered the ad implied they would retain bricks and mortar branches when, in Bettyhill, they had not done so, we concluded that claim was misleading.”

Linda Munro, who represents the North, West and Central Sutherland ward on Highland Council, said: “I’ve been here 35 years and there has never been a bank in Bettyhill. There has been a service where staff from RBS’s Tongue branch came to a community building for two hours on a Friday every week, that’s been the routine for decades.

“I suppose RBS is providing services by mobile bank, but it would be disingenuous to let people think it’s a bricks and mortar branch in Bettyhill.”

She also said the mobile bank move was received “negatively”, but an RBS spokesman said: “In Bettyhill, we improved services replacing two desks in a community centre with a mobile bank, which offers the same hours and staff but a more private, discreet customer window. ”