RBS vows to safeguard its Scottish heritage in major rebranding push

The Royal Bank of Scotland group has promised that its near 300 year-old history will remain unchanged in Scotland, despite a major rebranding drive designed to signal the start of a “new era” after a succession of scandals.

RBS chief executive Alison Rose said the rebranding strategy marked the start of a new era after years of scandal at the financial institution. Picture: PA

The lender is to change the name of its parent company to the NatWest Group in a reflection of its biggest brand. But amid fears the RBS name could be jettisoned altogether, it stressed that there would be no changes to Royal Bank of Scotland branches.

No jobs will be affected as part of the overhaul, which will also have no impact on the bank’s headquarters in Edinburgh, it said.

Some 12 years after the beleaguered institution received a £45.5 billion bailout at the height of the financial crisis, its chairman, Howard Davis, said it “makes no sense” to continue with the RBS name.

“The essential reason for this is as the bank has evolved from the financial crisis and the bailout, we have focused on the NatWest brand,” he explained.

“We have exited a lot of the international business which were not profitable. That was branded RBS and that’s gone … it was designed for a global group of brands, which we no longer are.”

Mr Davis clarified that the bank’s registered office will remain in Scotland’s capital, with no plans for 
“unscrewing any brass plaques at this point.” He added that a second independence referendum in Scotland could change this.

The RBS name covers hundreds of former banks, with the Royal Bank of Scotland itself founded in 1727.

By contrast, the NatWest name is a relatively modern invention, coined as recently as 1968 following the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. It in turn was taken over by RBS in 2000 in the biggest such deal in UK banking history. Even so, some 80 per cent of the group’s customers bank with 
NatWest.

Alison Rose, who took over the group’s chief executive in November, based permanently in London, described the rebranding strategy as the “start of a new era.”

She said she wanted to build “a more sustainable business” in the fact of what she called “unprecedented disruption.”

The bank reported profits of £3.1bn for 2019, nearly double the £1.6bn seen the year before.

Christine Jardine, the Liberal Democrats MP for Edinburgh West, where the RBS HQ is based, said staff and customers would be “reassured” to learn that the name change would not have an impact on local branches.

However, she said that the bank’s rising profits could be put to good use by bolstering its presence in rural Scotland.

“Many people in remote and rural communities have been left stranded without valuable face-to-face services, due to recent rounds of branch closures,” she explained.

“RBS should be channelling some of its good fortunes back into local services and exploring shared banking hubs so that towns across Scotland can retain access to a local branch.”