RBS HQ would move from Edinburgh to London in event of Scottish independence, says bank chief

‘Our balance sheet would be too big for an independent Scottish economy’

The Royal Bank of Scotland was founded in Edinburgh in 1727 (Getty Images)

The Royal Bank of Scotland has said that it would move its headquarters from Edinburgh down to London in the event that the country voted to leave the UK, says the boss of its parent company.

The chief executive of the NatWest Group, Alison Rose, said that the bank’s balance sheet was too large for an “independent Scottish economy” while noting that the issue of an independent Scotland was one for the Scots to decide themselves.

The NatWest Group’s CEO told the Herald newspaper: “We have been very clear, and it is recognised by senior nationalists, that in the event that there was independence in Scotland, our balance sheet would be too big for an independent Scottish economy, and we would move our registered headquarters... to London.”

Ms Rose’s announcement was met with concern as Tory finance spokesman Murdo Fraser warned that the news “starkly confirms the very real consequences for Scottish jobs and business if Nicola Sturgeon ever gets her way.”

Mr Fraser insisted that any loss of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s headquarters in Edinburgh would be “devastating” for the country.

Meanwhile, Chief executive of the pro-UK Scotland in Union campaign group, Pamela Nash, was of a similar opinion calling any potential loss of the RBS HQ in Edinburgh a “hammer blow for the country’s reputation as a place to invest and work.”

She added: “As a new and smaller economy, a separate Scotland would be at greater risk of shocks, and we would be gambling with people’s livelihoods by scrapping the pound and building a border with England.”

Ms Nash went on to highlight the fragility of the economy, particularly during the Covid recovery period before calling for the SNP to drop its “obsession with a divisive and reckless referendum.”

This is not the first time that RBS has threatened to leave Edinburgh and move its headquarters south of the border. In 2014, prior to the last Scottish referendum, the bank said that it had drawn up plans to move its head office out of Scotland in the event of Scottish independence.

RBS was founded in Edinburgh in 1727 and has been in the city ever since. The bank did not have an office in London until 1874, over one hundred years later.

The news comes just days before Scots head to the polls for the Holyrood election on 6 May, with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon pusing for yet another referendum should her party secure a majority of seats.