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As many as 30,000 jobs are to go at Royal Bank of Scotland over the next few years as part of plans to shrink the bailed-out bank, it was reported yesterday.
The group is expected to use annual results next week to announce its exit from many of its riskier investment bank activities, as well as much of its overseas business.
RBS employs 120,000 staff but plans to downsize by chief executive Ross McEwan is set to lead to a reduction of about a quarter in the group’s headcount over the next three to five years.
The bank, which is just over 80 per cent owned by the government, will refocus its activities on retail customers, small businesses and larger corporates.
Mr McEwan said in a video posted on the company’s website this week: “My aspiration is not to run the world’s biggest bank. My aspiration is to run the best bank in the UK — nothing to do with size. A lot of our costs are old costs related to a big global group that we are not any more.”
The group’s annual results on Thursday are set to reveal an annual loss of close to £8 billion for 2013.
RBS is expected to make heavy cuts to the 11,000 jobs in its investment bank, including a retreat from its US and Asian markets businesses.
The planned sale of its US retail bank Citizens will remove 18,500 jobs, while further reductions will come from its float of Williams & Glyn’s, which employs about 4,500 staff.
RBS has axed an estimated 40,000 jobs since its taxpayer-backed rescue in 2008.
The Unite union will be meeting RBS next week to demand clarity over staffing levels.
Unite national officer Rob Macgregor said: “The constant leaks and media briefings that appear to be coming from RBS are having a terrible effect on workers and their families and it needs to stop.
“According to the CEO, next week’s results will be about explaining the bank’s ambition to become a great bank for customers. Our message to RBS is that if it wants to deliver on that commitment then it needs all its staff and they need to be treated with respect, rather than being used as disposable pawns.”
