Royal Bank Of Scotland
As an overview of the Royal Bank Of Scotland history, there are three sections, the banking history, the present constituents and past constituents. Learning the history of the Royal Bank of Scotland is also learning the history of British banking in itself.
The Royal Bank of Scotland today is one of the institutions operated by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Collectively, all the business lines of the Group are considered the most comprehensive, biggest and oldest banking institutions in the United Kingdom. With the taking over of the National Westminster Bank in the year 2000, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group never ceased growing nationally and globally. Its family of bank centers is now spread across three major continents or regions, namely, Asia, United States of America and the Europe. Before the start of 2003, the Royal Bank of Scotland would become the 2nd biggest banking institution in European continent and the 5th biggest in the whole world based on market capitalization.
In the United Kingdom alone, the Royal Bank of Scotland has an expanding network that takes pride of a high level of customer service and diversified products and services. With commercial roots that dates back to 16th century, Royal Bank of Scotland’s long standing history is likened to that of the origins of British Isles banking. The Royal Bank today is an offshoot of 280 years of banking history and a combination of over 200 banks that encompass the bank’s present and past constituents.
The beginnings of the Royal Bank of Scotland sprouted in the year 1727 when it opened its banking doors to the Edinburgh community. For fifty six years, it only focused its operation in Edinburgh. The company then started to look out for new fields and in 1783, the Glasgow branch was established. Since then, the growth of the bank was inevitable.
The 19th century saw many branch openings of the Royal Bank of Scotland. 1874 was the year when it opened a bank in London. This move was said to be the turning point of the company as it was in London that the Royal Bank was able to strengthen its nationwide presence in the UK. Several banks joined in 1920, improving the operation of the company in England. Acquisitions include the Williams Deacons Bank, Drummonds, Glyn, Mills & Company, and the Child and Company, all of these companies have a long standing banking history in England.
The company, however, did not forget its roots, so in 1970, it agreed to merge with two major Scottish banks – the Commercial Bank of Scotland and the National Bank of Scotland. These two mergers would result to the company’s forty percent coverage of the Scotland’s banking market. In Wales, the Royal Bank of Scotland augmented its banking presence through merging with Williams & Glyn’s Bank in the year 1985.
The Royal Bank of Scotland tested the waters of other business ventures. This was seen in the establishment of an auto insurance unit in 1985 which was called Direct Line. It was a huge success. A major acquisition of a Rhode Island financial group in 1988 then followed. Meanwhile, Royal Bank’s lead in Britain continued to flourish. The 90s saw two ground breaking business lines of the Royal Bank. In 1994 it opened Britain’s first and fastest 24 hour tele-banking system, Direct Banking. And 3 years later it launched its first online banking system.
The latest spin in Royal Bank’s operating history is its merger with NatWest or the National Westminster Bank. This merger became the biggest in the history of British banking. Although combining the Information systems of both companies was an enormous task, both companies were able to pull off. Today, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group is the employer of 22,000 workers, the operator of 700 bank centers and printer of Scotland’s banknotes.