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

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

“This is a historic working day for our bank as we become NatWest Team plc. Despite the fact that there will be no variations to our customer models, it is really a symbolic moment for our colleagues and stakeholders. The bank has transformed basically about the final decade and now is the ideal time to align our team name with the brand name less than which the bulk of our small business is delivered”, stated chief executive Alison Rose.

“While what we are referred to as is important, it is really how we do small business that defines us…We are creating a sustainable and purposeful small business that champions the opportunity of our clients at every stage of their life, delivers for our stakeholders and plays a beneficial role in our society”, she added.

The banking huge, which also owns the Queen’s bank Coutts and is aspect-owned by the British isles taxpayer, stated final Thursday that it will keep the RBS brand name at its Scottish branches but operate as NatWest in its other marketplaces.

It also stated at the time that the name transform options shaped aspect of a tactic to align its team name “with the brand name less than which the bulk of our small business is delivered”, as all-around 80% of the company’s customer foundation originates from its Natwest division.

Nevertheless, the name transform may possibly also be a transfer by the bank to eventually attract a line less than the lingering toxicity of its RBS name, which has continued to pervade because the 2008 fiscal disaster amid a litany of scandals about payment defense insurance plan (PPI), rate correcting and the behaviour of its World Restructuring Team (GRG) small business device.

A report published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) final yr discovered that GRG had mistreated compact and medium sized businesses (SMEs) which were transferred to its control after the crash, with an unbiased critique also uncovering evidence of options to drain businesses of income in get to purchase belongings and fairness and enhance bonuses for sure personnel.

Rebrands: the superior, the lousy and the hideous

RBS’s rebrand also is the newest chapter in the chequered heritage of key company revamps.

Maybe just one of the more renowned illustrations of a rebrand gone wrong was the 2001 name transform of Royal Mail Team PLC () to ‘Consignia’, aspect of a tactic by then chief executive John Roberts to extend the scope of the small business and attempt to thrust into intercontinental marketplaces.

The £2mln rebrand became an quick laughing inventory and lasted all-around sixteen months prior to it was canned, with Roberts himself getting consigned to the checklist of former CEOs of the company soon after.

Even though Royal Mail’s brief-lived rebrand was aspect of an work to seem to the future of the small business, the rebrand of Arthur Anderson’s consulting arm to in 2001 was, considerably like RBS, a bid to slice the business off from its toxic past.

Once just one of the most greatly highly regarded accountancy companies, Arthur Anderson’s track record was still left in tatters next its role in the bankruptcy of US strength huge Enron, which was discovered to have utilized questionable accounting techniques to hide personal debt off its balance sheet which had been signed off by Anderson’s accountants.

Nevertheless, some company rebrands have more mundane ambitions in head, this sort of as the 2015 rebrand of research engine huge Google to ().

The tech company shaped Alphabet as a parent to the main research engine small business, which continues to be its most significant asset, although also allowing for it to scale the management of its other small business arms, many of which include things like research & advancement companies developing technological know-how linked to self-driving automobiles and other so-referred to as ‘moon-shot’ projects.

Shares in Natwest Team, which are nonetheless trading less than the ‘RBS’ ticker, were .four% reduce at 121p in mid-afternoon trading on Wednesday.

–Adds confirmation of name transform, updates share cost–