The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), currently the world's 6th largest bank, today announced it is joining forces with BMW WilliamsF1 Team as major sponsor in a multi-year deal starting with the 2005 season.

Commenting on the new investment, Howard Moody, Group Director of Communications for RBS, said:

"This represents an important next stage in our advertising and sponsorship programme which is designed to grow the Group's brand presence internationally. The RBS Group has now reached a scale in both size and international reach where a step change in our profile is required to ensure that our brand recognition keeps pace with the reality of where our business is.

"There is no silver bullet to deliver such recognition: we already invest in TV and print advertising in the US, airport branding and a variety of prestige sport sponsorships. The logical next step was to find a property that gave us a truly global reach in a quality format. Formula One was assessed against a number of other international brand-building options. Its reach through TV audiences presented the best investment for building the RBS brand in terms of round the year TV airtime value, offering approximately three times the size of the Superbowl TV audience - every fortnight. In the BMW WilliamsF1 Team we have outstanding partners with a great track record of innovation and performance, and we look forward to working with them during the 2005 season."

The BMW WilliamsF1 Team Principal, Frank Williams said: "We are delighted to have attracted an organisation of the calibre of RBS to join us as major sponsor for the 2005 season and beyond. They join an impressive list of leading global brands who have also recognised the commercial value of investing in Formula One to build awareness. We are very much looking forward to working with them in the years ahead."