During its existence, National Westminster Bank USA was a commercial bank with a national charter and a member of the Federal Reserve System, supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

An offshoot of the CIT Financial Corporation, which bought the bank in 1966, it earned a record US$25 million profit in 1974.

[4] Among other significant early developments was the acquisition of 16 branches from Bankers Trust Company in 1979, at a cost of US$11 million.

The year also marked the opening of NBNA's international banking office in Miami through North America International Corporation, a subsidiary established under the provisions of the Edge Act.

[10] Having struggled without success to make the operation profitable, NatWest Bancorp was divested for US$2.5 billion in 1996; its 300 branch network merging with Fleet Bank of New York, N.A.