The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group has changed its name to NatWest Group and named Mettle CEO Marieke Flament as the new leader of Bó.
She will hold the new CEO role alongside her old one at NatWest’s business digital bank solution Mettle. Flament takes over from Mark Bailie, who was revealed to be leaving the company in January after leading the launch of the app.
Flament will step in at a turbulent time for Bó. The app launched in November as an answer to the competition RBS and NatWest faced from challenger banks like Revolut, Monzo and N26.
However, the last few months have been full of setbacks for Bó, with the venture being accused of posting fake reviews, faced told the product was not up to snuff, having to deal with several fraudulent accounts opening at the launch and having to replace 6,000 credit cards because they were non-compliant with the EU’s strong customer authentication (SCA) rules.
The name-change from RBS to NatWest for the parent company is reportedly motivated by a desire to align the brand’s profile and to step away from a decade of scandals that has beleaguered RBS since the financial crisis,
Howard Davies, the chairman of RBS, told The Independent, “The essential reason for this is, as the bank has evolved from the financial crisis and the bailout, we have focused on the NatWest brand.
“We have exited a lot of the international businesses which were not profitable. That was branded RBS and that’s gone.
“It really makes no sense for us to continue to be called RBS. It was designed for a global group of brands, which we no longer are.”
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