Royal Bank of Scotland

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  The Royal Bank of Scotland plc
logo
Country United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Seat Edinburgh , Scotland
legal form Corporation
ISIN GB00B7T77214
BIC RBOSGB2LXXX
founding 1727
Website www.rbs.com
Business data 2015
Total assets 815 400 000 000 GBP
Employee 82,400
management
Corporate management

Howard Davies (Chairman),
Ross McEwan (CEO)

The Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS ) is a global credit institution based in Edinburgh . The bank was the largest financial institution in Scotland in terms of market capitalization, the second largest in the UK, the third largest in Europe and the tenth largest in the world in 2007. Ross McEwan has been CEO since October 2013, and Howard Davies has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board since September 2015. After massive losses from 2008 and government grants totaling £ 45 billion, the British state now held 84 percent of the RBS shares. On July 8, 2015, it was announced that the UK government plans to reduce the state's stake in RBS by three quarters by 2020. In June 2018, she sold a block of shares (7.7 percent of the shares) for £ 2.5 billion; since then it still holds 62.4 percent of the shares.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is not to be confused with the Bank of Scotland (Lloyds Banking Group).

Business building

RBS is part of the international RBS Group. In the UK, RBS is the second largest insurance provider. In the United States, Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (CFG), which operates in North and South America, is part of the RBS Group and is one of the ten largest commercial banks.

In the Asia-Pacific region, RBS was at times one of the five largest banks. In February 2015, after losses, RBS announced that it wanted to give up its activities in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa entirely. They want to reduce activities in Southeast Asia and the USA.


history

18th and 19th centuries

The Bank of Scotland , which had existed since 1695, was only allowed to grant loans to the state with the consent of the Scottish Parliament. In order to counter opposition from parliament, the RBS was founded by royal decree in 1727. In 1728 it was the first bank in the world to introduce overdrafts . In the next 15 years or so, there was tough cut-throat competition between the two banks, but neither could win it. In the early 1780s, RBS began expanding and opened offices across Scotland . This continued throughout the 19th century, with the first takeovers of other institutions.

In 1826, the RBS put the first double-sided banknotes into circulation.

20th century

In the 1920s there was a consolidation of the British banking market, in which the RBS was significantly involved. Further takeovers after World War II made RBS the largest Scottish bank and controlled nearly 50 percent of the Scottish market. The 1980s were marked by the development of new products such as insurance and investments in the USA , at the same time several takeover attempts by other banks were fought off. In the 1990s, the bank focused more on the British market, stepped up retail banking and pioneered telephone and online banking . Through joint ventures with the supermarket chain Tesco and the Virgin Group , new sales channels were broken. From 1997 to 2008 the leasing company Angel Trains was a wholly owned subsidiary of RBS. Angel Trains is one of the largest rail vehicle leasing companies in Europe.

21st century

Expansion of the business with acquisitions

Now the fifth largest bank in Great Britain, the hostile takeover of the National Westminster Bank (NatWest) followed in 2000 . This was preceded by an attempt to take over a British insurer by NatWest at the end of 1999, which was viewed as a wrong strategy in the banking sector. This prompted the Bank of Scotland to make a takeover bid against NatWest, which in turn called the RBS on the scene. In February 2000, it had attracted enough NatWest institutional investors to its side that the £ 21 billion takeover came about. With this, RBS suddenly gained access to the American and continental European markets, in which it had not been particularly well represented until then.

In August 2005, a strategic partnership was agreed with the Bank of China (BOC), the second largest Chinese bank. As part of the deal, RBS bought 10% of BOC for $ 3.1 billion and hired a board member. The stake, which most recently stood at 4.26%, was sold in January 2009 for a net £ 1.6 billion (US $ 2.34 billion).

On September 14, 2005, the British Queen Elizabeth II opened the new RBS headquarters in Gogarburn , west of Edinburgh, which accommodated the employees , who had previously been spread across numerous locations in the city.

In 2007, RBS participated in the largest bank takeover in the world to date. Together with the Belgian / Dutch Fortis group and the Spanish Banco Santander , the group acquired the major Dutch bank ABN Amro for EUR 71.8 billion . On October 17, 2007, the banking trio took over the management of ABN Amro. The three winning bidders wanted to break up the Dutch bank and divide the business areas among themselves. As the consortium leader , the RBS Group initially reported ABN Amro in its books.

In mid-2008, Santander Consumer Finance, part of the Santander Group, took over the continental European consumer lending business of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The transaction was completed at the end of 2008 and comprised business activities in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium. In some countries the respective branch operates as Santander Consumer Finance.

Losses from 2008 and rescue operations

In the wake of the financial crisis , the bank suffered billions in losses and received government funding from the British government. The first step took place in October 2008 with a recapitalization in which the government invested around 23 billion euros in capital and took over 58% of the shares. The then head of the bank, Fred Goodwin, was replaced by Stephen Hester in November 2008.

By not paying dividends in exchange for conversion into shares, the government already held almost 70% percent of the shares in RBS in February 2009 when the bank posted a loss of £ 24.14 billion (approx. EUR 27 billion) for the 2008 financial year . was announced.

As a result, the British government pumped another £ 31.2 billion (€ 34.5 billion) into the British crisis banks Lloyds Banking Group and RBS in 2009 . RBS received an additional £ 25.5 billion directly in equity, bringing the government's stake in the bank to 84%. In addition, the government secured £ 282 billion in critical securities in the RBS portfolio. In return for government support, the bank had to sell parts of its investment banking business and branch network.

The fact that the bank ran into financial difficulties was not only due to the takeover of competitor ABN AMRO in 2007, which had not been thoroughly examined by either the management or the supervisory board. According to the December 2011 report by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on the causes of the collapse, the Royal Bank of Scotland had, among other things, an insufficient tier 1 capital ratio , overvalued structured products and a lack of internal controls. The report also said that the political environment favored business as the Royal Bank was insufficiently controlled by the FSA, with the lack of regulation during the Blair administration (1997 to 2007) being seen and wanted as a strength.

On January 12, 2012, RBS announced a further downsizing of investment banking. According to a press release, the areas of stock trading, IPOs and capital increases, advising on mergers and acquisitions and serving listed companies should be abandoned or sold. The renovation resulted in a further reduction of 3,500 jobs. After a bonus payment of 1 million pounds (around EUR 1.15 million at the time) to Stephen Hester, which was announced at the end of January 2012, met criticism, he waived the payment.

Since 2012, LIBOR manipulation

In late July 2012, bank chief Stephen Hester admitted that RBS was implicated in the LIBOR manipulation ; this scandal was largely uncovered by the Directorate-General for Competition . On August 3, 2012, the bank confirmed the dismissal of some traders for this reason. At the same time, Hester again announced poor business figures: RBS reported pre-tax losses of 1.5 billion pounds for the first half of 2012. In the first half of 2011, the loss was about half that. It was discussed whether Great Britain should completely take over RBS.

In June 2013, Stephen Hester announced his retirement as head of bank. In October 2013, New Zealander Ross McEwan took over operational management. He joined RBS in September 2012 from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia .

In November 2013, the company announced the establishment of an internal bad bank to process problem papers worth 38 billion British pounds (around 45 billion euros). Under pressure from the British government, the “poison facilities” are to be dismantled within three years, for which the bank will have to accept further high losses. The government's goal is to get the capital back through privatization by the next elections.

In February 2020, the Royal Bank of Scotland announced that the entire group would be renamed the NatWest Group in the course of the 2020 calendar year. RBS thus takes over the name of the subsidiary NatWest, which was taken over in 2000.

Systematically ruining small businesses for profit

According to reports from BuzzFeed News and BBC Newsnight, the Royal Bank of Scotland, through its Global Restructuring Group, has systematically ruined thousands of UK small businesses to generate billions in additional profits. According to the allegation, which cites several thousand leaked internal documents, a scheme called “Cash for Dash” paid bonuses to employees in order to find companies that could be easily pressured. The companies were then z. B. with massive fees, fines, interest rate hikes and loan cancellations, so that their property could often be bought at the lowest prices.

people

Over time, the people at the top of the bank had different titles: cashier, general manager, managing director, chief executive.

No. Surname Taking office title No. Surname Taking office title
1. Allan Whitefoord 1727 Cashier 13. Adam Tait 1907 ?
2. John Campbell 1745 ? 14th Alexander Kemp Wright 1917 ?
3. George Innes 1777 ? 15th William Whyte 1933 ?
4th William Simpson 1780 ? 16. John McArthurThomson 1944 ?
5. George Mitchell 1808 ? 17th Walter Ballantyne 1953 ?
6th William Mitchell 1816 ? 18th George Robertson 1965 ?
7th Andrew Bogle 1825 ? 19th Alexander Robertson 1969 ?
8th. John Thomson 1827 ? 20th John Burke 1969 ?
9. Robert Sym Wilson 1845 ? 21st Charles Winter 1982 ?
10. Laurence Robertson 1856 ? 22nd Sir George Mathewson 1992 Chief Executive
11. James Simpson Fleming 1871 ? 23. Fred Goodwin 2000 Chief Executive
12. David Robertson Williamson Huie 1892 ? 24. Stephen Hester 2008 Chief Executive

Banknotes

Similar to what was customary for several private central banks in Germany until the 1920s, the Bank of Scotland , the Clydesdale Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland, among others, still have the right to issue their own banknotes. The notes of the RBS loud as that of the Bank of England on sterling ; they are generally accepted as tender in Scotland and occasionally in England but are not legal tender. The Bank of England's guidelines apply to the printing and issuing of notes.

German-speaking countries

Germany

In 1993, at that time still under the umbrella of the National Westminster Bank, the lending and financing business was built up in Ratingen near Düsseldorf . After taking over the credit card division of Santander Direktbank in 2003, the company also acted as a credit card issuer and as the European headquarters for the aforementioned business areas. In cooperation with Tchibo , the company has been granting consumer loans since 2003 .

The Group's own insurance company Direct Line , which emerged from Allstate Direct , which was taken over in 2001, is located in Teltow near Berlin . RBS WorldPay , which sells payment systems and processes payment flows , is located in Frankfurt am Main .

The corporate customer business is based in Frankfurt am Main , where the holding company that controls the German business of RBS is also located. Before the financial crisis, RBS was heavily involved in German companies. She has helped fund multi-billion dollar loan-funded acquisitions, including a. when the Schaeffler Group swallowed the automotive supplier Continental . At times it was - apart from the local institutes - the largest lender of major German corporations.

The shares of the RBS Group are traded on the Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich and Xetra stock exchanges. However, only about 1% of global sales are made here. In the years 2002 and 2007 the price jumped the 9 euro mark, but fell within 2 years due to the financial crisis in 2007 to 0.10 euro (low in January 2009) and thus a fraction of its value. The course has recovered somewhat as a result of the nationalization.

Austria

In Vienna , RBS has been operating under the brand name Comfort Card since 1998 as a goods financier for the end consumer, and meanwhile also as a lender and credit card issuer. With the takeover of the European consumer credit business of RBS by Santander Consumer Finance, the division in Austria now also belongs to Santander Consumer Finance. Originally set up as a branch of the German company with its own administration and call center, there is now only one local sales office. The other tasks are now handled by Ratingen.

Switzerland

At the end of 2003, RBS took over Ernst & Cie AG's bank, founded in 1869, for 225 million euros and merged it with its Swiss subsidiary Coutts & Co AG , which has been operating under the name Coutts & Co AG since 2011 .

Web links

Commons : Royal Bank of Scotland  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the BIC directory at SWIFT
  2. ↑ a b Annual Report 2016. Accessed February 9, 2018 (PDF; English).
  3. ↑ Die Bank , June 2008. ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.die-bank.de
  4. ^ A b Royal Bank of Scotland - Chronicle of Failure . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , December 13, 2011.
  5. ↑ Great Britain plans to sell most of the RBS package by 2020. Reuters, July 8, 2015, accessed July 12, 2015 .
  6. ↑ seattletimes.com June 5, 2018: UK sells 7.7 percent stake in Royal Bank of Scotland
  7. ↑ for the management structure see www.rbs.com: www.rbs.com/rbs/about/board-and-governance/board-and-committees/group-board.html Group board (with further links)
  8. ↑ www.globalcapital.com February 26, 2015
  9. ^ £ 1 note of The Royal Bank of Scotland, 1827. RBS. Our banknotes. Historic notes. Royal Bank of Scotland, accessed on January 31, 2014 (English): "It was introduced in 1826 (...) It was also the first British banknote to be printed on both sides."
  10. ↑ Chronology of the BBC on the takeover of NatWest (English)
  11. ↑ For example in the Netherlands http://www.santander.nl/
  12. ↑ Almost 60 percent owned by RBS. State now major shareholder. n-tv.de, November 28, 2008, archived from the original on January 6, 2010 ; Retrieved November 2, 2013 .
  13. ↑ RBS shares plunge on record loss. BBC News, Jan. 19, 2009
  14. ↑ a b RBS and Lloyds: British crisis banks get new tax billions , Spiegel Online, November 3, 2009
  15. ^ A b Reuters Germany: British RBS escapes from investment banking . January 12, 2012
  16. ↑ Jill Treanor: RBS risks row over 'unacceptable' Stephen Hester £ 1m bonus, The Guardian , Jan. 27, 2012
  17. ↑ Spiegel Online: Royal Bank of Scotland - Boss waives million bonus , January 30, 2012
  18. ↑ Big bank fires traders due to interest rate scandal spiegel.de, August 3, 2012
  19. ↑ RBS does not get on its feet - Another high loss - Operational setback . handelsblatt.com, August 3, 2012
  20. ↑ Ross McEwan: The new head of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Reuters, August 2, 2013
  21. ↑ Bad Bank founded: Royal Bank of Scotland writes off billions. Der Spiegel, November 1, 2013, accessed on November 6, 2013 .
  22. ↑ boerse.ard.de: Royal Bank of Scotland will be accessed on NatWest on February 14, 2020
  23. Jump up ↑ Buzzfeed - The Dash For Cash: Leaked Files Reveal RBS Systematically Crushed British Businesses For Profit . In: Buzzfeed .
  24. ↑ BBC News - RBS squeezed struggling businesses to boost profits, leak reveals . In: BBC News .
  25. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 16, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.scotbanks.org.uk
  26. ↑ http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/legal_position.php