The Royal Bank of Scotland rebrands new businesses in landmark day for GCC financial services sector

The rebranding confirms the commitment of RBS to the GCC region where the banking and financial services sector is seen as an area of significant potential growth. From today, branding on premises, marketing and other communications will be changed to RBS. Customers' account numbers, bank accounts, banking activities and other relationship details will remain the same to ensure a seamless transition.

RBS will offer a range of banking services in the region with its Retail offering based in the UAE and Global Banking and Wealth propositions offered in several locations across the GCC to meet the needs of its customers in both local and international markets. Customers will benefit from the increased scale and efficiencies that the global Group will bring as well as an enhanced range of Retail and Global Banking products and services.

Cormac McCarthy, Chief Executive, RBS Regional Markets Europe and Middle East said;

"Today marks an important development for the financial services sector in the GCC. We are delighted that the businesses in the GCC are among the first to reach this rebranding milestone; this highlights the importance of the region to us. We welcome all our new colleagues and we look forward to working together to provide the best possible service to all our customers."

Colin Macdonald, Country Executive, UAE explains: "The combination of the two businesses in the GCC represents an exciting development for our customers who will benefit from the introduction of new and innovative products designed to address their individual needs."

Macdonald added: "RBS brings global financial services expertise as well as leading-edge products and strategies to the GCC. In the UAE we are already one of the market leaders in the credit card segment and our award winning preferred banking business continues to perform very strongly. The collaboration between RBS Royal Preferred Banking, RBS International and RBS Coutts provides local and international clients with unique wealth management products and global services. In the coming months you'll see some significant product announcements from our Retail Banking teams. We've spent time developing new and first to market credit card initiatives and intend to keep our leadership position in this segment. We also have a significant opportunity in the Global Banking & Markets arena, where we're already positioned within the top group on the league tables and our debt capital markets and advisory services are second to none. The foundations have been laid and we're now ready to offer our strengthened capability in Global Markets to the GCC region."