Royal Bank of Scotland to rebrand bank as NatWest Group later this year

The firm, which is still recovering from one of the costliest bailouts of the financial crisis, will incur costs of as much as 1 billion pounds

Royal Bank of Scotland Group ’s new boss, Alison Rose, is abandoning the bank’s three-century-old name and slashing its markets business as the state-controlled lender steps away from its tumultuous past.

RBS will be renamed NatWest Group later this year, adopting the brand of the English branch network it’s used since a merger that reshaped British banking two decades ago. Rose is also paring back profit targets and embarking on further cost cutting in her first set of earnings since replacing Ross McEwan.

“Our performance doesn’t yet match the potential that exists in this bank,” Rose said in a statement on Friday.