RBS
Company Profile
Company name
The Royal Bank of Scotland
Business sector
Finance
Who is The Royal Bank of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS Group) provides banking and other financial services to customers all over the world.
What the RBS Group does
The RBS Group is one of the world’s top ten financial groups, employing 135,000 people and serving more than 36 million personal customers worldwide.
The Group is made up of six divisions which in turn incorporate over 40 brands.
Retail Markets
This division includes the high street banks, a network of ATMs, telephone and internet banking. The bank serves both personal and small business customers by providing a range of products and services. These include current accounts, savings accounts, cards and card services, investments, mortgages and loans.
Corporate Markets
Corporate Markets provide banking and financial services to large companies both in the UK and across the world.
RBS Insurance
This division provides insurance services. For example, motor, home, pet, travel, breakdown cover, life and commercial insurance.
The RBS Group includes household names like Churchill, Direct Line and Green Flag.
Ulster Bank Group
The Ulster Bank Group provides banking and financial services for personal customers and corporate customers in Ireland.
Citizens Financial Group
Citizens is a commercial banking company in the United States. It has more than 1,600 branches, approximately 3,100 ATMs and 25,000 employees.
Manufacturing
This division provides services which support the many different RBS brands. For example the maintenance of the IT network, the telephone customer service facility, processing mortgages and money transmission. It also oversees the Group’s property investment programme.
Where the RBS Group operates
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was founded in Edinburgh in 1727. It expanded throughout Scotland and eventually crossed the borders into England. RBS is part of the RBS Group which now operates in 30 countries across Europe, the US and Asia Pacific.
The RBS Group Logo
RBS adopted their logo in 1969. They wanted an image to show the qualities of being:
- modern
- dignified
- reliable
- friendly.
The final abstract design was inspired by arranging piles of coins which gave the shape of arrows pointing inwards. This represents wealth building up – an important message for the bank and its customers. The squareness and symmetry of the logo suggests stability, and friendliness is conveyed by the round shape at the centre.
What do you think?
What do you see when you look at the RBS logo?
Make a list of four words that express the key qualities you would expect from a financial group (e.g. confidence, security). Look again at the logo and say if it illustrates any or all of those values.
Design a logo for a bank. Use coins, or another symbol connected with finance, as your starting point. Before you start make a list of all the contexts in which the logo will be displayed e.g. stationery, cheques, cards etc
The RBS Group in the next decade
The RBS Group aims to lead the way in providing banking and financial services throughout the world. To do this they intend to:
- Run the business with integrity and openness
- Go for the best financial results using clear business principles
- Deliver sustainable growth with controlled risk and strong returns
- Provide high-quality customer service
- Employ the best staff.