It is a measure of how disenchanted investors have become with NatWest that the bid (or one from another predator) stands every chance of success.
Q I have a debt with NatWest - an overdraft on what was my current account and a personal loan.
The pair have been insured with NatWest for years but last week their owner, Annie Heffernan, was told that the bank is stopping cover.
Bank of Scotland wants to make NatWest (which would remain an independent brand) a more focused retail bank: non-core businesses, such as Gartmore and Greenwich NatWest, its capital-markets arm, would be sold.
The Royal Bank, which climbed to the top ranks of British banking through a painful but transforming merger with NatWest in March 2000, has been growing since then mainly by making smaller, focused acquisitions.
So why am I still with NatWest?
In 1967 I left home and opened my first bank account, with NatWest.
It drew a parallel with NatWest's ill-fated attempt at an insurance takeover in 1999.
Terminating my credit card agreement with NatWest is not enough, although obviously that is my first step.
"I've been with NatWest for more than 20 years and didn't expect them to suddenly desert me".
