The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that it is set to scrap this name in favour of a rebrand that will see it known as NatWest, as its mortgage products hit new levels of success.
NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland are both owned by NatWest Holdings, which is supported by taxpayers in the UK, and the primary reason that has been given for the change is that a far greater number of customers throughout the country are using the NatWest branches. The decision comes as the company has confirmed that its gross mortgage lending for last year rose by £3.1 billion.
The annual profit for the bank was £4.2 billion, which marks an improvement on the £3.5 billion reported for 2018, with the boost in the numbers of mortgage loans signed off during the year one of the contributing factors in this. However, RBS has also stated that the level of competition that exists in the mortgage sector had an effect on its net interest margin, which fell by 10 basis points compared to the end of 2018.
According to Mortgage Solutions, Alison Rose, its chief executive, told shareholders that low economic growth and interest rates were the reason for this, but added:
“Consumer confidence on the other hand continues to be supported by a relatively strong UK employment market and we are seeing good volumes in our mortgage business as a result.”
The healthy state of the mortgage market is good news for anyone with CeMAP mortgage advisor training.
