As Tom has mentioned he’s also a Natwest customer, I think he feels your pain and maybe part of the reason they’re already making such a big push towards launching that all important fully featured current account. I also escaped the horror of Santander years ago and haven’t looked back since.
I may be wrong, but I think that its in the regulations to take approximately 6 months from being granted the restricted license to gain the full license. Having be granted the restricted license in August, I would estimate around about February/March. This is backed up by a recent post from Jonas