RBS to shed 2600 jobs; 500 roles to be shipped offshore

10 May 2010 | 7836 views | 0 Royal Bank of Scotland

The Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut a further 2600 jobs from its UK insurance and retail banking arms, bringing the total number of job losses at the Edinburgh-based bank to 22,600 since the onset of the financial crisis.

RBS says 2000 jobs will be shed from its Churchill and Direct Line insurance operations. A further 600 will go from the head office of its retail banking arm in London and Edinburgh.

The bank says the cuts are necessary to meet state aid stipulations laid down by the European Commission last year. These require the bank to dispose of its insurance arm by 2013 and sell off 316 branches operating under the Williams Glyn's brand.

As part of the programme, as many as 500 back office insurance roles will be moved offshore to India.

The plan has been condemned by finance union Unite.

Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer for finance, says: "Unite is fundamentally opposed to offshoring, as well as compulsory redundancies. This is a devastating blow for a dedicated workforce which has worked very hard to turn around the fortunes of RBS following some disastrous decisions by the previous management."