The Curious Quick Life of RBS Brand “Bó”

The Challenger of Challenger Banks Only Lasted Six Months

Illustration by Author — based on the image from this article

If you have read any of my older finance-related pieces, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of digital banking and finance. After all, that’s pretty much why I started this publication — Fintech Central.

I’ve had a digital bank account with Monzo for a little over two years now and I also have an account with Starling. Despite that, I do still have a traditional bank account with Natwest, owned by RBS. It holds my worldly debt of £800ish.

So when Natwest launched the sunshine yellow “Bó” six months ago, I was slightly amused as well as curious. “What’s with the name?” I thought. I guess it was their idea of trying to distance the corporate parent brands.

I wasn’t shy about the colour scheme though, yellow is my favourite colour. But their main value proposition was being a ‘spending’ card to separate from your frequent bills as well as being attached to their high street parent coffers.

I suppose I’m not surprised, being a spending card was the VP Monzo and Starling built their brands on more than five years ago. However, things moved forward, the challengers became fully-fledged banks while the high street brands were left choking on techie dust.