National Westminster Bank Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

National Westminster Bank - Case Study Example NatWest could have also responded swiftly and effectively as rivals such Barclays and Lloyds TBS had done so with the sweeping changes brought about by Internet-enabled financial transactions to the banking industry. By the 1990s, NatWest's traditional bank branch practices such as mortgage and savings faced stiff competition from new comers such as Egg and Virgin, upstart retailers and supermarket banks which rode the wave of the financial services revolution. The globalization of financial transactions has also partly driven the mergers in the banking industry - making big domestic banks such as NatWest unable to compete in the new financial landscape. By the time NatWest made its ill-fated foray into bancassurance (an untested recipe in the U.K.) via a bid for the insurance and investment firm Legal and General in early September 1999, the market has made a clear judgment that the bank didn't cut the investors' approval of its management. The steep fall in NatWest's stock thereaft er only revealed its vulnerability for a takeover. Right until the very end when RBS has won the bid against the BS in February 2000, NatWest refused to give in, insisting that a takeover would not add value to shareholders and would put the much smaller bank in danger of overstretching its finances.