who owns royal bank of scotland

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) does not have a single private “owner” in the everyday sense; it is owned by a mix of shareholders and sits inside a larger listed banking group.

Quick Scoop: Who owns RBS?

• The Royal Bank of Scotland is a retail and commercial bank that operates as one of the main banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group plc , a large UK‑listed banking group.

• NatWest Group itself is a public company whose shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange (ticker NWG), so ultimate ownership is spread across many institutional and individual investors.

• The UK government (via HM Treasury) still holds a significant minority stake in NatWest Group as a legacy of the 2008 financial crisis bailout, but it has been gradually selling this down and no longer has majority control.

• Day‑to‑day, RBS is run by its own management and board under the umbrella of NatWest Group, with governance and oversight set at the group level.

Simple way to think about it

If you picture the structure:

• NatWest Group plc (listed company; widely held by investors, with the UK government as a large shareholder)
  ↳ The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (banking subsidiary and brand customers deal with in Scotland and elsewhere)

So when someone asks “who owns the Royal Bank of Scotland?”, the most accurate short answer today is:

It is owned by its parent, NatWest Group plc , which in turn is owned by a wide base of public shareholders, including the UK government as a large but declining minority shareholder.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.