Natwest Group PLC completes name change from Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC

Natwest Team PLC has done its name improve from Team PLC (), adding that its LSE-detailed shares will improve to the new name with a new ticker ‘NWG’ from Thursday.

“This is a historic working day for our financial institution as we become NatWest Team plc. Though there will be no adjustments to our client makes, it really is a symbolic second for our colleagues and stakeholders. The financial institution has transformed basically above the previous decade and now is the ideal time to align our team name with the brand name underneath which the vast majority of our enterprise is delivered”, reported main government Alison Rose.

“While what we are termed is important, it really is how we do enterprise that defines us…We are constructing a sustainable and purposeful enterprise that champions the prospective of our clients at just about every phase of their life, provides for our stakeholders and plays a constructive job in our society”, she included.

The banking big, which also owns the Queen’s financial institution Coutts and is portion-owned by the British isles taxpayer, reported previous Thursday that it will retain the RBS brand name at its Scottish branches but operate as NatWest in its other marketplaces.

It also reported at the time that the name improve plans shaped portion of a approach to align its team name “with the brand name underneath which the vast majority of our enterprise is delivered”, as around eighty{d5f2c26e8a2617525656064194f8a7abd2a56a02c0e102ae4b29477986671105} of the company’s client base originates from its Natwest division.

Nonetheless, the name improve might also be a move by the financial institution to eventually attract a line underneath the lingering toxicity of its RBS name, which has ongoing to pervade due to the fact the 2008 fiscal crisis amid a litany of scandals above payment protection insurance policy (PPI), charge correcting and the behaviour of its Global Restructuring Team (GRG) enterprise device.

A report published by the Money Conduct Authority (FCA) previous year identified that GRG experienced mistreated little and medium sized corporations (SMEs) which ended up transferred to its regulate after the crash, with an independent evaluate also uncovering proof of plans to drain corporations of dollars in get to acquire assets and fairness and raise bonuses for selected staff members.

Rebrands: the excellent, the terrible and the unattractive

RBS’s rebrand also is the most recent chapter in the chequered history of main company revamps.

Perhaps a single of the additional well known examples of a rebrand gone improper was the 2001 name improve of Royal Mail Team PLC () to ‘Consignia’, portion of a approach by then main government John Roberts to grow the scope of the enterprise and attempt to press into international marketplaces.

The £2mln rebrand turned an quick laughing stock and lasted around sixteen months just before it was canned, with Roberts himself staying consigned to the listing of previous CEOs of the business shortly after.

Although Royal Mail’s shorter-lived rebrand was portion of an energy to search to the long run of the enterprise, the rebrand of Arthur Anderson’s consulting arm to in 2001 was, much like RBS, a bid to lower the corporation off from its harmful earlier.

When a single of the most extensively revered accountancy companies, Arthur Anderson’s name was still left in tatters subsequent its job in the individual bankruptcy of US power big Enron, which was identified to have utilized questionable accounting methods to disguise credit card debt off its harmony sheet which experienced been signed off by Anderson’s accountants.

Nonetheless, some company rebrands have additional mundane objectives in intellect, this kind of as the 2015 rebrand of look for engine big Google to ().

The tech business shaped Alphabet as a father or mother to the main look for engine enterprise, which remains its major asset, though also allowing for it to scale the management of its other enterprise arms, a lot of of which consist of study & advancement companies building engineering connected to self-driving cars and other so-termed ‘moon-shot’ assignments.

Shares in Natwest Team, which are continue to buying and selling underneath the ‘RBS’ ticker, were .4{d5f2c26e8a2617525656064194f8a7abd2a56a02c0e102ae4b29477986671105} reduce at 121p in mid-afternoon buying and selling on Wednesday.

–Provides affirmation of name improve, updates share selling price–