‘RBS would still leave an independent Scotland’ - McEwan

Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Ross McEwan has confirmed that the Edinburgh-based bank would still move its registered headquarters south of the border should Scotland vote to leave the UK in a post-Brexit independence referendum.

Mr McEwan restated the position of the still 73 per cent state-owned lender as outlined in the days before the 2014 independence referendum.

At the time, RBS met with controversy when it said it would switch its registered headquarters from Edinburgh to London and now Mr McEwan has said that has not changed as the business remains “too big for the economy” of an independent Scotland.

However, Mr McEwan said the change would remain only be an administrative one that only involved the shifting of a “plaque” and would not impact on the 12,000 bank employees north of the border.

Mr McEwan said: “We’d have to make the same moves I suspect because the Royal Bank of Scotland, being domiciled in Scotland, would just be too big for the economy.

“I’ve got 12,000 people who serve the Scottish people and we also run our retail business from up here along with a lot of our technology.

“Two years age when we had the Scottish referendum, I made it very clear we’d have the people in the right place, that moving the plaque didn’t make any difference to them.

“I think that would be the same. I think for any country, they just need to remain very competitive so businesses like ourselves want to operate in those countries.”

The bank’s unaltered contingencies were outlined as Mr McEwan also warned First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that a second independence referendum would increase the uncertainty already damaging the economy as a result of the rest of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

It has been argued since the EU vote’s result that Scotland’s financial services sector, which employs 160,000 people, could stand to benefit from independence as it would be able to retain its common market relationship with the rest of the continent.

But on the potential economic impact of a second independence vote, Mr McEwan said: “Just take account of uncertainty – that’s what you’re seeing after Brexit.”

The Scottish Government said RBS’s unchanged position was not important as it would have “no impact” on jobs.

A spokeswoman added: “The uncertainty our economy faces is from Brexit. That’s why our immediate priority is to secure our continued place in the single market and strengthening our links with our key European markets.”