Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC to rebrand as Natwest Group PLC next Wednesday

Group PLC () has claimed it will formally rebrand itself as Natwest Group PLC from July 22, retaining the RBS brand at its Scottish branches but working as NatWest in its other markets.

The banking large, which also owns the Queen’s bank Coutts and is component-owned by the United kingdom taxpayer, claimed it will make a subsequent announcement when the identify transform normally takes influence, even though its ticker on the LSE will also transform.

Read: RBS extends incentivised switching plan deadline for enterprises

RBS claimed the identify transform programs sort component of a technique to align its team identify “with the brand beneath which the vast majority of our company is delivered”, as close to 80% of the company’s client base originates from its Natwest division.

Nevertheless, the identify transform could also be a move by the bank to eventually attract a line beneath the lingering toxicity of its RBS identify, which has continued to pervade considering that the 2008 fiscal disaster amid a litany of scandals around payment security insurance policy (PPI), fee fixing and the conduct of its World Restructuring Group (GRG) company device.

A report printed by the Money Carry out Authority (FCA) past year identified that GRG had mistreated small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) which ended up transferred to its command following the crash, with an impartial overview also uncovering evidence of programs to drain enterprises of funds in purchase to receive belongings and fairness and boost bonuses for particular workers.

Rebrands: the superior, the lousy and the unappealing

RBS’s imminent rebrand also is the most recent chapter in the chequered record of significant corporate rebrands.

Maybe just one of the additional famous illustrations of a rebrand absent improper was the 2001 identify transform of Royal Mail Group PLC () to ‘Consignia’, component of a technique by then main govt John Roberts to broaden the scope of the company and try to push into intercontinental markets.

The £2mln rebrand turned an instant laughing stock and lasted close to sixteen months just before it was canned, with Roberts himself being consigned to the record of previous CEOs of the business soon following.

Although Royal Mail’s short-lived rebrand was component of an effort to search to the upcoming of the company, the rebrand of Arthur Anderson’s consulting arm to in 2001 was, considerably like RBS, a bid to minimize the company off from its harmful earlier.

Once just one of the most broadly highly regarded accountancy corporations, Arthur Anderson’s standing was remaining in tatters subsequent its role in the bankruptcy of US vitality large Enron, which was identified to have applied questionable accounting practices to disguise debt off its harmony sheet which had been signed off by Anderson’s accountants.

Nevertheless, some corporate rebrands have additional mundane aims in brain, this kind of as the 2015 rebrand of research motor large Google to ().

The tech business shaped Alphabet as a guardian to the core research motor company, which stays its major asset, even though also permitting it to scale the administration of its other company arms, a lot of of which contain research & development corporations making technological know-how associated to self-driving cars and other so-referred to as ‘moon-shot’ projects.

Shares in RBS ended up .four% decreased at 121p in mid-afternoon investing on Thursday.