Saatchi set to win £10m RBS

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is tipped to appoint Saatchi & Saatchi to handle its £10m retail and corporate advertising account.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is tipped to appoint Saatchi & Saatchi to handle its &£10m retail and corporate advertising account.The bank began a review of the account, held by Faulds Advertising, in May last year. It drew up a shortlist, but failed to make an appointment from that list (MW May 23, 2002). In October, a new shortlist was drawn up, including Publicis and Saatchi & Saatchi.The RBS advertising account covers the bank’s business in Scotland and Northern England. RBS also owns NatWest, which it acquired in a &£2.1bn hostile takeover in 2000. NatWest’s advertising account, which is handled by M&C Saatchi, is unaffected by the review. M&C Saatchi also manages the advertising business for Coutts Group, a private bank acquired by RBS as part of the NatWest deal.In December, RBS’ credit card arm, RBS Advanta, appointed Clemmow Hornby Inge to manage its &£5m advertising account, replacing Wieden & Kennedy. RBS’ other businesses include Lombard Direct and Direct Line, and it has a 50 per cent stake in Tesco Personal Finance. At the end of last year, the bank was fined &£750,000 by the Financial Services Authority for failing to run identification checks on prospective customers.