RBS brand to undergo (another) overhaul as it’s ditched in England and Wales
The Royal Bank of Scotland is shedding its RBS branding, axing it altogether in England and Wales.
The Times reports that RBS branding will be removed from more than 500 branches in England, Wales and Scotland.
Some 300 branches in England and Wales will be overhauled to take on ‘Williams & Glyn' branding, a challenger bank it created in 2013. The move comes ahead of RBS’ plans to sell or float its Williams & Glyn arm in the coming year with the rebranded branches set to be included in the sale.
Meanwhile in Scotland the ‘RBS’ marque on will be replaced with the full name, Royal Bank of Scotland.
It sees the bank make a U-turn on a strategy it tried to implement last year. In October it decided to ditch its uppercase acronym in favour of a lowercase logo and overhaul any branches where the full Royal Bank of Scotland name was used to adopt the stripped back design.
David Wheldon, former Barclays brand chief and president of the World Federation of Advertisers, was brought in last year as its first chief marketing officer to guide the overhaul.
Wheldon told The Times the latest changed to the brand signal that it’s “no longer a global bank with ambitions to be the biggest.”