The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Joint Stock Company (English: The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC; Scottish Gaelic: Banca Rıoghail na h-Alba, LSE: RBS) is a multinational bank headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the largest bank in Scotland in terms of market capital, the second largest bank in the United Kingdom (after HSBC), the third largest bank in Europe, and the fifth largest bank in the world. It is also one of Scotland's note-issuing banks. In addition to general bank wealth management services, it also has insurance, company finance and other businesses.

As of the end of December 2008, its total assets were as high as 3,500.9 billion US dollars, and the first-tier capital was 101.88 billion US dollars. 2008 loss was 59.3 billion US dollars.

History

Royal Bank of Scotland Head Office

• The Royal Bank of Scotland was established in 1727 and became the first bank in the world to offer overdraft services in 1728. It has always been a competitor to the Bank of Scotland and tried to acquire the Bank of Scotland in 1727-28, but failed in the end.
• In addition to the development of Scotland, in the late 19th century, as London slowly became the largest financial center in the world, it began to expand its business in England. In 1874, the bank opened its first branch in London.
• The Bank of England was unwilling to be contested by the Bank of Scotland for business, so it tried to deal with this problem. The two regions later signed a treaty stating that banks in England would not open branches in Scotland, while Scottish banks could only open branches in London. The treaty was in force until the 1960s, but there were cross-border acquisitions in between.
• In 1960, Royal Bank of Scotland opened its first branch outside the UK in New York, USA; now RBS has branches in many countries.
• In 1981, HSBC Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Standard Chartered competed to acquire RBS, but failed under the rejection of the British Monopoly and Merger Commission.
• In 1999, they acquired National Westminster Bank.
• August 2005 Royal Bank of Scotland, together with Li Ka Shing Fund, Merrill Lynch and other fund investors formed RBS China to acquire 20.94 billion pre-sale shares of Bank of China Global for approximately US $3.048 billion (RBS accounts for approximately 51.6% of RBS China), that is, the purchase price per share is about 1.135 yuan
• October 12, 2007 A consortium of Fortis Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander successfully acquired ABN Amro for 71 billion euros (US $101 billion). Royal Bank of Scotland acquired ABN Amro's European North American business, corporate banking business and Asian business.
• On April 22, 2008, the Royal Bank of Scotland offered its shareholders a rights issue of 11 new shares for every 18 shares, with a rights issue of 200 pence each to raise 12 billion pounds (US $23.70 billion, about HK $186.30 billion). The British government acquired 57% of the shares of Royal Bank of Scotland. Before this, the British Barclays also considered making a comprehensive acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland. The news shocked the entire British political arena.
• On January 13, 2009, Royal Bank of Scotland sold 10.809 billion H shares at HK $1.68 to HK $1.71 per share, accounting for 4.26% of the total share capital of Bank of China, cashing out 2.37 billion US dollars, equivalent to about HK $18.50 billion. On February 27, the British government agreed to guarantee 300 billion pounds (425.96 billion dollars) of assets for Royal Bank of Scotland. And injected another 25.5 billion pounds (36.5 billion dollars) of capital. So far, the British government owns 95% of the bank's shares, but the Treasury said its voting rights will not exceed 75%. Under the agreement with the British government, RBS will pay 6.5 billion pounds in fees to participate in the guarantee scheme. If there is a loss on RBS's 300 billion pound portfolio, the bank will first bear 20 billion pounds in losses, and then the government will provide guarantees, but the bank will still bear 10% of the losses. RBS will pay for the guarantee and issue so-called special Class B shares to the government, raising 13 billion pounds in new capital. The deal allows banks to raise an additional £6 billion by issuing more of these shares, which can be converted into common shares. On August 4, ANZ Bank agreed to buy some of RBS's assets in Asia for $550 million. ANZ's acquisitions include RBS's retail banking, personal and business finance operations in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong, as well as corporate banking operations in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam, involving 54 branches, $3.20 billion loans and $7.10 billion deposits, and 2 million wealthy clients. On November 2, the UK Treasury will inject 25.50 billion pounds into RBS Group, raising the shareholding ratio to 84%.
• On February 17, 2010, JPMorgan Chase agreed to acquire RBS Sempra, an energy trader owned by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), for $1.70 billion, but the transaction did not involve RBS Sempra's North American operations. On August 3, Santander UK agreed to acquire parts of RBS in England, Wales and NatWest Scotland for £1.65 billion, including £350 million in goodwill. The acquisition includes 311 branches of RBS in England and Wales, 7 branches of NatWest and 40 SME banking centres, more than 400 Customer Relationship Managers, 4 corporate banking centres and 3 private banking centres. 1.80 million retail customers, about 244,000 SME customers and 1,200 medium-term corporate customers, becoming the fourth largest bank in the UK branch network, and the share of the SME market will also increase from 3% to 8%.
• On January 16, 2012, Royal Bank of Scotland sold its aviation leasing business for $7.30 billion to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group of Japan, which is the fourth largest aviation leasing company in the world.
• On April 2, 2012, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) sold most of its Asian equities and investment banking business to Malaysian financial group CIMB for £four hundred million. This transaction will make CIMB the largest investment banking operator in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan).
• On September 24, 2014, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) spun off its US Citizens Financial Group (code name CFG) and listed in New York. It plans to sell 140 million shares or 25% equity at a price of $21.50 per share, raising $3 billion, and the market value after listing is $14 billion. It is the 11th largest listed bank in the United States.
• In April 2016, Royal Bank of Scotland sold its Malaysian subsidiary to Taiwan's financial holding company CITIC Gold (2891-TW) for NT $6.10 billion.
• In August 2016, Taiwan's CITIC Gold announced that it would give up the acquisition of the Malaysian subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland
• In September 2016, Royal Bank of Scotland (China) Limited was dissolved.
• On May 17, 2018, Saudi British Bank exchanged 0.485 shares for one Saudi ABN Amro, equivalent to 16.3 riyas per share, and spent 18.60 billion riyas (about 4.96 billion US dollars) to acquire Saudi ABN Amro, which is 40% owned by Royal Bank of Scotland. After the merger of the two companies, it will become the third largest bank in Saudi Arabia, with total assets of 78 billion US dollars