Hester fights to hang on to Citizens in US November 1, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester is fighting tooth and nail to keep Citizens, the group’s flagship American retail banking business, on its books after it emerged that Europe is considering forcing it to divest the brand in the interests of competition. Citizens, which has over 1,480 branches in the US, is regarded [...]
RBS in EC branch sale threat October 14, 2009 EUROPEAN Commission (EC) lawmakers may force Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to sell off 312 of its RBS-branded bank branches, under new rules for firms receiving state bailouts. Neelie Kroes, the EC competition commissioner, is considering forcing the bank to slash its small business banking operations by 10 per cent. This would be achieved if [...]
CURRENT MORTGAGE DEALS October 8, 2009 Source: MoneySupermarket.com LENDER FIXED/FLEXIBLE RATE UNTIL STANDARD RATE APR MAXIMUM LOAN (PER CENT) (PER CENT) (PER CENT) TO VALUE (PER CENT)HSBC Special [...]
RBS closes the door on new credit cards October 5, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has closed its credit card business to new customers in a bid to prevent a rise in bad debts. The lender, which is 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer, will limit new credit cards to existing banking customers, meaning that anyone who wants an RBS or NatWest credit card [...]
Hester: Cost savings and asset sales are going well September 29, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) chief executive Stephen Hester’s mission to sell off non-core assets is going well, he said yesterday, confirming that the bank’s aircraft leasing operation was for sale. “We will sell all the things in non-core or wind them down, and the things in core will stay in the bank unless someone [...]
Sandler joins Pearl as chair September 24, 2009 PEARL, the insurer founded by pubs-to-pizza entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, has confirmed Northern Rock head Ron Sandler is joining as chairman. The group has taken on Sandler ahead of its planned secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange in the fourth quarter. Sandler was put in charge of failed mortgage lender Northern Rock after it became [...]
Scandals do little damage to Renault and JJB September 22, 2009 BRAND INDEXSTEPHAN SHAKESPEARE WE’VE discussed before the stability of brands: British Airways is a great example of those that have suffered all sorts of media squalls and yet always return to their same high BrandIndex score. They are in the overwhelming majority: it’s one of the key reasons to invest heavily in brand-building, that it [...]
J Sainsbury names Tyler September 13, 2009 SUPERMARKET chain J Sainsbury has appointed former GUS finance director David Tyler to become its next chairman. Tyler will be taking over the role of Sir Philip Hampton as head of Britain’s third largest supermarket group. Hampton earlier this year said he would relinquish the position to allow him to concentrate on his chairmanship of [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland mulls a revival of Williams &Glyn’s brand September 13, 2009 STATE-SUPPORTED Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is considering relaunching the Williams &Glyn’s high-street banking name, with an eye to putting a swathe of its retail bank branches up for sale, it has emerged. The bank could rebrand hundreds of branches to the old name, which was dropped after RBSbought the NatWest chain of high-street banks, [...]
RBS moves to cut overdraft charge in half September 7, 2009 ROYAL Bank of Scotland has broken ranks with competitors by slashing charges on customers who go overdrawn without agreement or exceed their overdraft limit. From 1 October, RBS and subsidiary NatWest will slash the fee for returning a cheque, direct debit or standing order to £5, while the fee for paying an item on an [...]