Royal Bank of Scotland
Co-founder 1727Background
The Royal Bank of Scotland was founded by royal charter in Edinburgh in 1727.
Role at NatWest Group plc
NatWest Group possesses a complex, consolidated founding story, essentially representing the historic amalgamation of the deepest roots of British and Scottish banking, eventually destroyed by the hubris of a single executive. The fragmented modern entity traces its deepest roots back to 1727 with the prestigious founding of The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in Edinburgh which was created by Royal Charter heavily to support the Hanoverian government and act as a rival to the established Bank of Scotland. The 'NatWest' lineage traces back heavily to 1833 with the founding of the prestigious National Provincial Bank in London, which eventually executed a historic merger with the historic Westminster Bank in 1968 to form the National Westminster Bank (NatWest). The defining, corporate explosion occurred in 2000. Under the aggressive, ruthless leadership of Fred Goodwin (famously known as 'Fred the Shred' for his aggressive cost-cutting), the much smaller Scottish bank (RBS) executed a hostile £21 billion takeover of the significantly larger English bank (NatWest). This historically unprecedented acquisition established RBS as a global titan and heavily inflated Goodwin's ego. For eight years Goodwin was celebrated as a banking genius, driving RBS to become briefly the largest bank in the world by assets, before his aggressive, acquisition strategy triggered the most devastating corporate collapse in British history.