NatWest UK, and it has a large network of over 960 branches and 3,400 cash machines across Great Britain and offers 24-hour "Actionline" telephone and online banking services. Today, it has more than 7.5 million personal customers and 850,000 small business accounts. In Ireland, it operates through its Ulster Bank subsidiary. In 2017, NatWest was awarded Best Banking App in the British Bank Awards. The bank's origins date back to 1658 with the foundation of Smith's Bank of Nottingham. The creation of the modern bank was announced in 1968, and National Westminster Bank Limited commenced trading on 1 January 1970, after
Royal British Bank Royal British Bank The Royal British Bank was a British joint-stock bank, established under a Royal Charter in 1849, that collapsed in 1856, causing a scandal. The circumstances were described by "The Economist" as "an extraordinary example of the little trouble the public take to think for themselves". The eight surviving directors—among them Henry Dunning Macleod—were put on trial in February 1858 (the bank's founder, John MacGregor, Member of Parliament for Glasgow, had died in 1857). They were tried for conspiracy to defraud the bank's customers at the Court of Queen's Bench before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Campbell. On