RBS to axe 3,000 staff in the UK
Britain faced more jobs misery today over plans by Royal Bank of Scotland to axe around 3,000 staff.
The bank, which is in line for a £20bn (€23.2bn) taxpayer handout to help shore up its finances, is understood to be cutting the posts from its global banking and markets workforce over the coming weeks.
The bank’s workforce is spread over 50 countries with a major base in the London, and has been the area of the group hardest hit by the credit crunch.
A spokeswoman for RBS declined to comment in detail about the job cuts.
But she said: “We constantly review our operating model to make sure that it is appropriate to the market condition, and take action accordingly.”
RBS has around 170,000 staff in total, of which about 100,000 are in the UK.
Earlier this month the group’s new chief executive, Stephen Hester, signalled a round of cost cuts in the wake of the bank’s rescue package from the Government. “Costs are one of the things we need to look at,” he said.
Yesterday saw more than 10,000 job losses announced by some of the UK’s biggest companies, as evidence the economic downturn was tightening its grip on the jobs market mounted.
BT said it was axing 10,000 posts, mainly among workers and sub-contractors, with financial services group Friends Provident shedding 280 jobs.
