Royal Bank of Scotland plans name change

Royal Bank of Scotland is officially changing its name to Natwest Group from next week.

Branches will continue to trade as RBS and the name will still be heavily associated with the business.

But the lending giant wants to move away from the brand tarnished by a £45bn government bailout in 2008.

New boss Alison Rose unveiled the planned name change in February and it will come into effect from Wednesday, July 22.

Chairman Howard Davies said earlier this year: “As the bank has evolved from the financial crisis and the bailout, we have focused on the NatWest brand.

“We have exited a lot of the international business which were not profitable. That was branded RBS and that’s gone.

“It really makes no sense for us to continue to be called RBS. It was designed for a global group of brands, which we no longer are.”

RBS – still majority-owned by the taxpayer more than a decade since the financial crisis – became one of the biggest banks in the world through aggressive acquisition.

But this unravelled in the financial crisis when it was forced to turn to the government for bailout cash to avoid collapse.

It has since shed much of its international operations and once mighty investment banking arm.