RBS to drop ‘toxic’ acronym branding

The Edinburgh-based bank, which was bailed out by UK taxpayers at a cost of £45 billion in the darkest days of the financial crisis, has also since been found guilty of mis-selling insurance products and exchange rate rigging and running up fines now worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

‘RBS’ was the brainchild of now disgraced former chief executive Fred Goodwin, who led the giant to the edge of the abyss.

Mr Goodwin said at the time that the full version of the bank’s name was too parochial and would hold it back from achieving the global expansion plans from which it is now desperately retreating.

In a bid to distance itself from the negative image consequently associated with ‘RBS’, the bank will now scrub the branding from about 500 branches in across the UK.

RBS branches in English and Welsh will operate under the Williams & Glyn banner, while Ulster Bank, owned by RBS, will keep its name in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile in Scotland, branches will now revert back to the bank’s full name of Royal Bank of Scotland.

David Wheldon, the bank’s chief marketing officer, said: “We are no longer a global bank with global ambitions to be the biggest. We are now a UK and Ireland focused bank with a strong bank of brands and an ambition to be the best bank for customers. As part of our strategy to build a stronger, simpler, fairer bank, we are dialling up our brands and directing our efforts to make each of our customer brands number one in their respective markets.”

The bank will continue to go by RBS on the stock exchange.