RBS announces up to 2,300 UK job losses

by Gill Montia

Story link: RBS announces up to 2,300 UK job losses

As former chiefs of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) made public apologies before the Treasury Select Committee yesterday, the group announced that it could cut up to 2,300 jobs in the UK.

The bank, which will shortly be majority state-owned, was brought to the brink of collapse last year under the leadership of its chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, and chairman, Sir Tom McKillop.

The spectacle of public humiliation as both men answered to MPs fell far short of justice and the apologies rendered were reminiscent of verse in a bereavement card, when the sender doesn’t know quite what to say.

Meanwhile, RBS is proposing to shed around 2% of its UK workforce of 106,000, with most of the job cuts among non-counter staff.

The redundancies will be in addition to the 3,950 jobs shed across the group since August 2007.

Last month RBS announced that it expects to post a loss of between £7 billion and £8 billion for 2008.