Joshua loses out in £15m NatWest fight

Joshua is understood to have lost its place on NatWest’s direct marketing roster following a protracted review.

Earlier this year, Royal Bank of Scotland called a review of the &£15m below-the-line rosters for its RBS and NatWest brands. Bosses wanted to cut the roster from five agencies to two in an attempt to achieve greater efficiency. It is unclear which agencies have been appointed, but Joshua is out of the running, say sources.

A final decision was to have been made by the end of April and several agencies involved are understood to have thought the review had been stalled or even scrapped. As Marketing Week went to press, the banking group was not available for comment.

Joshua works on NatWest’s business services, investment services and ISAs. The other agencies that pitched for the business were Tequila/Manchester, which was thought to be in the running to pick up a large chunk of the business, Lida, EHS Brann and WWAV Rapp Collins. The roster also included Red Tag and Miller Bainbridge, although it is believed neither agency made it to the final stage.