Key facts about RBS

In 2012 the Group:

  • Offered more than £58 billion of loans and facilities to UK businesses, of which more than £30 billion was to SMEs, and renewed £27 billion of overdrafts including £8 billion for SMEs.
  • Advanced £16 billion of UK home loans, including £3 billion to first time buyers.
  • Accounted for 36% of all SME lending, compared with its overall customer market share of 24%.

Key facts

  • We have around 33 million customers globally. This equates to around:
    • 24 million in the UK
    • 3 million in Europe
    • 5.4 million in the US
    • 0.4 million in Asia.
  • Across all our brands, we have around 3,700 branches globally:
    • around 2,200 in the UK
    • around 1,400 in the United States
    • around 160 in the rest of the world.
  • The Group is undergoing one of the biggest corporate restructuring programmes in history. In 2012 RBS successfully repaid the UK Government's emergency liquidity support and exited the Asset Protection Scheme at the earliest possible date. RBS has also reduced its non-core assets from £258 billion in 2008 to £65 billion currently.

The UK Government investment in RBS

  • The UK Government initially took a 58% stake in RBS ordinary shares alongside a tranche of preference shares in November 2008. In April 2009 the preference shares were converted into ordinary shares, and the Government's ordinary shareholding in RBS at the end of January 2013 is 65.3%.
  • Including the Government’s acquisition of B shares in December 2009, the total economic ownership of the UK Government is currently 81.14% of the RBS Group.
  • The UK Government formed UK Financial Investments Ltd (UKFI) to manage its investments in financial institutions including RBS. UKFI has been given a clear mandate by the Government with an overarching objective to dispose of the Government's shareholdings in an orderly and active way, with due regard to financial stability and the promotion of competition.
  • The average Government buy-in price is 502.26p.  Taking into account the fees RBS has paid to the UK Government to date (a total of £5.5bn), the average break-even price moves to 440.64p.

Note: The calculation on buy-in price takes into account fees of £5.585 billion paid to date. The calculation also takes into account the consolidation of shares which took place on June 2012.

RBS Innovations in banking

Overdrafts

In 1728, just months after it had started trading, RBS granted the world’s first overdraft facility to Edinburgh merchant William Hog. The ‘cash credit’ as it was then known, was meant as a convenient form of short-term credit for business customers. Many new businesses were able to come into being thanks to this facility and it has since become an indispensable aspect of economic activity both large and small. Today, £35m worth of overdrafts are agreed for our small business customers every day.

Mobile branch banking

In 1946 National Bank of Scotland (later part of RBS) introduced the world’s first mobile bank service on the Isle of Lewis, just off the west coast of Scotland. The idea was imitated by banks serving remote populations all over the world, and our mobile banks (run by both RBS and NatWest) remain popular with our customers today. We have 19 mobile branches in operation today.

House purchase loans

In 1972 RBS became the first UK clearing bank to offer house purchase loans. It focussed its offering on customers who were not well-served by the products already available from building societies, including older customers and people who were buying old or unusual houses. Today, RBS helps homebuyers by granting around 100,000 mortgage loans every year.

Internet banking

In 1997 RBS was the first British bank to announce a fully-fledged online banking service. Other banks had produced pilot or partial internet services, but RBS’s online offering was the first comprehensive facility. Today, RBS has more than 5.6 million active online banking users.

ATM giving

In 2012, RBS Group became one of the first high street banks to enable UK customers to donate money to charity at its ATMs. Since the launch of this new facility in June 2012, RBS has helped customers donate more than £400,000 pounds to good causes.

Access to cash worldwide

In 1769 Coutts & Co, in partnership with merchant Robert Herries, started issuing ‘circular notes’, which established an international network of ‘correspondent banks’. For the first time, customers were able to access money abroad, when and where they needed it. Nowadays, our customers carry out about 21 million overseas Point of Sale transactions per year.