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

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

“This is a historic working day for our bank as we grow to be NatWest Team plc. Although there will be no variations to our purchaser brand names, it really is a symbolic instant for our colleagues and stakeholders. The bank has improved basically above the last ten years and now is the proper time to align our group identify with the model below which the greater part of our small business is delivered”, explained main govt Alison Rose.

“While what we are called is critical, it really is how we do small business that defines us…We are building a sustainable and purposeful small business that champions the probable of our buyers at every phase of their life, delivers for our stakeholders and plays a positive role in our society”, she additional.

The banking giant, which also owns the Queen’s bank Coutts and is part-owned by the Uk taxpayer, explained last Thursday that it will keep the RBS model at its Scottish branches but function as NatWest in its other markets.

It also explained at the time that the identify modify options shaped part of a system to align its group identify “with the model below which the greater part of our small business is delivered”, as all-around 80% of the company’s purchaser base originates from its Natwest division.

However, the identify modify could also be a go by the bank to ultimately attract a line below the lingering toxicity of its RBS identify, which has continued to pervade due to the fact the 2008 economical crisis amid a litany of scandals above payment defense coverage (PPI), charge correcting and the behaviour of its World wide Restructuring Team (GRG) small business unit.

A report released by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last 12 months discovered that GRG experienced mistreated tiny and medium sized organizations (SMEs) which ended up transferred to its command immediately after the crash, with an unbiased assessment also uncovering evidence of options to drain organizations of income in order to obtain assets and fairness and increase bonuses for specific personnel.

Rebrands: the very good, the poor and the unattractive

RBS’s rebrand also is the most up-to-date chapter in the chequered background of key corporate revamps.

Most likely a single of the far more popular examples of a rebrand absent improper was the 2001 identify modify of Royal Mail Team PLC () to ‘Consignia’, part of a system by then main govt John Roberts to increase the scope of the small business and try to thrust into global markets.

The £2mln rebrand became an immediate laughing inventory and lasted all-around sixteen months before it was canned, with Roberts himself remaining consigned to the checklist of previous CEOs of the business shortly immediately after.

While Royal Mail’s short-lived rebrand was part of an hard work to glance to the potential of the small business, the rebrand of Arthur Anderson’s consulting arm to in 2001 was, much like RBS, a bid to reduce the enterprise off from its toxic past.

After a single of the most greatly highly regarded accountancy companies, Arthur Anderson’s standing was remaining in tatters adhering to its role in the personal bankruptcy of US electricity giant Enron, which was discovered to have employed questionable accounting practices to conceal credit card debt off its equilibrium sheet which experienced been signed off by Anderson’s accountants.

However, some corporate rebrands have far more mundane ambitions in mind, these as the 2015 rebrand of lookup engine giant Google to ().

The tech business shaped Alphabet as a mother or father to the core lookup engine small business, which remains its biggest asset, though also allowing it to scale the administration of its other small business arms, several of which include exploration & progress companies creating technological know-how linked to self-driving cars and trucks and other so-called ‘moon-shot’ assignments.

Shares in Natwest Team, which are even now buying and selling below the ‘RBS’ ticker, were .4% reduced at 121p in mid-afternoon buying and selling on Wednesday.

–Provides affirmation of identify modify, updates share value–