Finance giant Royal Bank of Scotland will formally change its name to NatWest Group on July 22 as it looks to move away from the brand that was bailed out in the financial crisis.
The decision comes after new boss Alison Rose unveiled the change as part of her new strategy soon after taking on the top job last autumn.
It sees the group move away from a brand that was tarnished by its mammoth £45.5billion state bailout in 2008.
Branches will continue to trade as RBS but investors and advisers will now know the listed entity as NatWest Group – changing a name that has been in place since the bank’s foundation in 1727.
At the time of revealing the name change earlier this year, chairman Howard Davies explained: “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 – which remains majority-owned by the UK taxpayer more than a decade since the financial crisis – became one of the biggest banks in the world.
But its acquisition policy unravelled in the financial crisis when it was forced to turn to the Government for bailout cash to avoid collapse.
