Lending giant Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed it will formally change its name to NatWest Group on July 22 as it looks to shift away from the brand that was bailed out in the financial crisis.

The move comes after new chief Alison Rose unveiled the name change in February as part of her new strategy soon after taking on the top job last autumn.

It sees the group move away from a brand that was tarnished by its mammoth £45.5 billion state bailout in 2008.

Bank branches will continue to trade as RBS and the name will still be heavily associated with the business.

READ MORE: Royal Bank of Scotland Group to rebrand as NatWest

But investors and advisers will now know the listed entity as NatWest Group - changing a name that has been in place since the bank's foundation in 1727.

RBS said a further announcement will be made once it officially changes its name.

At the time of revealing the name change earlier this year, chairman Howard Davies explained: "As the bank has evolved from the financial crisis and the bailout, we have focused on the NatWest brand.

"We have exited a lot of the international business which were not profitable.

"That was branded RBS and that's gone.

"It really makes no sense for us to continue to be called RBS. It was designed for a global group of brands, which we no longer are."

RBS - which is still majority-owned by the taxpayer more than a decade since the financial crisis - became one of the biggest banks in the world through an aggressive acquisition trail.

But this unravelled in the financial crisis when it was forced to turn to the Government for bailout cash to avoid collapse and it has since shed much of its international operations and once mighty investment banking arm.