Bank of Scotland is putting its faith in US tele-evangelist

At first it sounded like a hoax. Bank of Scotland, one of the oldest British banks - which even retains the privilege of printing Scottish bank notes - is to launch a direct bank in the US in partnership with Pat Robertson.

Mr Robertson is best known internationally for his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, backed by the party's ranks of conservative evangelical Christians. Famed for such feats as ordering Hurricane Gloria to divert its course away from his television station ("I felt that if I couldn't move a hurricane, I could hardly move a nation"), he seems an extraordinary partner for a staid British bank attempting to bring telephone banking to the US.

The fact that William Hendry, the Bank of Scotland director who first discussed the deal with him, was a passionate supporter of Celtic, the Glasgow soccer club which represents Scotland's Catholic community, only adds to the sense of the bizarre. In Britain, Bank of Scotland had chosen J. Sainsbury, a supermarket chain, as a partner; it was hard to see the conservative firebrand as comparable.

But that would be to mistake Mr Robertson's career so far. The 68-year-old made his name as a politician and evangelist, but his greatest successes have been as a businessman. Most spectacularly, he sold International Family Entertainment, the parent company of his US cable network, to Rupert Murdoch for $1.9 billion (€1.7 billion) two years ago.

His business interests have stretched to include diamond mining, chemicals (where he started his career) and banking (he was a director of one of Virginia's larger banks during the 1980s). He is a director of Laura Ashley, the British clothes retailer. And he has another vital passport for success in US business: a law degree from Yale.

Hence Mr Hendry's enthusiasm. "Pat brings three things. He has entrepreneurial spirit. He has knowledge of banking. And we feel he has really good knowledge of where many Americans are looking for value and service products."

Mr Robertson dabbled in business before being ordained, working as a management trainee for W.R. Grace, the chemicals company. His career as a television evangelist has shown a strong grasp of marketing. He virtually invented television evangelism and has been its most successful exponent. His avuncular style has proved more durable than the histrionics of other television preachers, such as Jimmy Swaggart.

With a loan of $37,000, he bought his first network, which he renamed the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), in 1961. It was the first station registered with the Federal Communications Commission to devote more than half of its broadcast time to religious programming. As a religious organisation, and technically a non-profit company, it benefited from a lenient tax regime.

To keep it afloat in the early years, Mr Robertson became the first tele-evangelist to offer toll-free numbers, encouraging viewers to identify themselves more closely with the network. (Admittedly, the policy was revealed to have a downside in the 1980s when Mr Robertson's political opponents began telephoning his number round the clock, costing him as much money as possible.)

CBN expanded its programming to include old Hollywood films, and popular nostalgic series such as The Waltons, leaving his flagship 700 Club as the only overtly Christian programme on the network (and even it is packaged like a conventional morning magazine programme, with news, opinions from Mr Robertson and general interest topics). Later, the CBN empire broadened to include the Family Channel (the ninth largest cable network in the US), a university, and Operation Blessing, a relief agency.

Mr Robertson has also dabbled in private interests, including diamond mining in Africa. This led to allegations that Operation Blessing aircraft, funded by donations, were being used for the benefit of Mr Robertson's mining interests - although he has always maintained he repaid Operation Blessing for their use.

The only problem was that all this activity became too profitable to sustain CBN's tax-exempt status. In 1990, International Family Entertainment, the entity subsequently sold to Rupert Murdoch, was formed to buy out the Family Channel from CBN. Mr Robertson and his family controlled the company, although CBN and Regent University also had significant stakes.

This collection of interests has certainly created powerful loyalty among viewers. And that may well be his decisive attraction. Although Bank of Scotland is not prepared to talk about its marketing plans until its direct banking venture has been cleared by US regulators, Mr Robertson offers arguably as strong and trusted a brand in the US as the Sainsbury supermarket chain does in Britain.