The Royal Bank of Scotland cancelled its hospitality suites and events at the Wimbledon tennis championships, as well as a one-day golf event on 28 June featuring golf legend Jack Nicklaus at Gleneagles, Scotland, amidst a public outcry over severe IT issues at the bank.
According to The Guardian, the 528 RBS tennis tickets might still be used, but the “lavish hospitality suite will not be, and bankers will not be there to entertain them”. The bank’s majority shareholder since its 2008 bankruptcy remains the UK taxpayer. An estimated 13 million RBS Group customers had been affected by the IT issues over the course of nearly a week.
Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS Group, said the events had been cancelled due to "technical issues” and, though the banking group had “made significant progress in resolving the IT issues, under the circumstances, we felt it would be inappropriate to provide client hospitality at Wimbledon.”
