Royal Bank of Scotland

Not to be confused with Bank of Scotland.

The Royal Bank of Scotland plc
Native name
Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba
Company typePrivate
IndustryFinancial services
Founded31 May 1727; 297 years ago (1727-05-31)
HeadquartersEdinburgh, Scotland, UK
Key people
Services
Number of employees
71,200
ParentNatWest Group
Websiterbs.co.uk

The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba)[2] is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank. The Royal Bank of Scotland has around 700 branches, mainly in Scotland, though there are branches in many larger towns and cities throughout England and Wales. The bank is completely separate from the fellow Edinburgh-based bank, the Bank of Scotland, which pre-dates the Royal Bank by 32 years. The Royal Bank of Scotland was established to provide a bank with strong Hanoverian and Whig ties.[3]

Following ringfencing of the Group's core domestic business, the bank became a direct subsidiary of NatWest Holdings in 2019. NatWest Markets comprises the Group's investment banking arm. To give it legal form, the former RBS entity was renamed NatWest Markets in 2018; at the same time Adam and Company (which held a separate PRA banking licence) was renamed The Royal Bank of Scotland, with Adam and Company continuing as an RBS private banking brand until 2022.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dundas was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Token and symbolic use of the Scottish Gaelic name occurs on some Royal Bank of Scotland buildings and customer stationery such as cheque books. Gaelic is not used on the Royal Bank of Scotland website, for contracts or on their banknotes.
  3. ^ Lenman, Bruce (1992). Integration and Englightenment Scotland 1746–1832. ISBN 9780748603855.
  4. ^ Treanor, Jill. RBS to strengthen NatWest brand. The Guardian. 30 September 2016.