Coutts Bank

Coutts & Co.

Type	Subsidiary; Private unlimited company
Industry	Private banking and wealth management
Founded	1692
Headquarters	440 Strand, London, England
Key people	Lord Waldegrave, Chairman Peter Flavel
Products	Wealth management – accounts, investments, lending, deposits
Number of employees	2,000
Parent	Royal Bank of Scotland Group
Website	www.coutts.com

Coutts /ˈkuːts/ is a private bank and wealth manager, founded in 1692. It is the seventh oldest bank in the world and its international arm was recently sold to Union Bancaire Privée.

It is owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) since 2000, when RBS purchased its parent, NatWest. Coutts formed part of RBS's private banking division. During its time with RBS, it acquired Zürich-based Bank von Ernst & Cie and in 2008, Coutts Bank von Ernst and other Coutts International subsidiaries became RBS Coutts Bank. These traded as RBS Coutts International to align them with the parent RBS Group until 2011, when RBS Coutts was renamed Coutts & Co. Limited.

The bank which was to become Coutts & Co, was originally a goldsmith-banker's shop. It was formed in 1692 by a young Scots goldsmith-banker, John Campbell of Lundie, Scotland. He set up business in Strand, London, under a sign of the Three Crowns, as was customary in the days before street numbers. Today, the Coutts logo still has the three crowns, and its headquarters is still on the Strand.

Campbell died in 1712, leaving the business to members of his family. The dominant force was Campbell's son in law, George Middleton, who had become Campbell's partner in 1708. During Middleton's stewardship, the bank was buffeted by one crisis after another. The Jacobite revolution of 1715 threatened the stability of the banking system, John Law, the Comptroller of France's finances, owed a great deal of money to the bank when the Mississippi Company bubble burst in 1720 and the English stock market collapsed in the same year. Stability for the bank did not return until 1735. John's son, George Campbell was also a partner, and ultimately became the sole partner after the death of Middleton in 1747, after which the bank was renamed the "Bankers of 59 Strand".