Edinburgh-based bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS Group) has announced its plans to change its name to NatWest Group later this year.
RBS Group, which owns RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank, said it plans to rename itself to NatWest Group later in 2020. The name change was announced as it reported profits of £3.1 billion for 2019, nearly doubling the £1.6 billion profit recorded in 2018.
New RBS chief executive officer (CEO) Alison Rose called the surge in profits the "start of a new era" for the bank. The renaming is understood to be a move to shift the lender's image away from its association with the financial crisis.
In 2008, the government rescued the bank in the aftermath of the 2007 global financial crisis at a cost of £45 billion. Currently, the bank is still 62% state-owned.
Rose assured that the change in name would not affect any services for RBS or NatWest customers. Approximately 80% of the bank's customers are thought to use NatWest.
The names of individual NatWest and RBS branches will remain the same despite the renaming of the group. She also guaranteed that the name change would not result in any job loss across the group.
When she was appointed in 2019, Rose became the first woman to lead one of the so-called big four largest banks in the UK. She has been with RBS for over 25 years, previously serving as deputy chief executive of NatWest Holdings, and head of commercial and private banking at the group.
RBS has also expressed its commitment to "at least halve the climate impact" of its financing activity by 2030 and promised to stop lending to coal companies by the end of the decade.
The bank also stated that it would make its own operations "net carbon zero" by the end of this year. These announcements follow a pledge by Lloyds Banking Group to halve the amount of carbon emissions it finances through personal and business loans by 2030.
