Last month the bank, which is now 70% owned by the government, outlined plans to cut 9000 jobs by 2011 - 4500 in the UK - as it bids to save £2.5 billion over the next three years.

The job losses will be spread across the country although finance sector union Unite says London and Edinburgh offices will be hit particularly hard.

Rob MacGregor, national officer, Unite, says: "Since the announcement by the bank in April that 4,500 people will be made redundant, staff across the company have been living with uncertainty about their future. This confirmation for employees in the IT and property divisions that they will be the ones hit is devastating."

MacGregor says the union is pressing RBS to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum.

Earlier this week Lloyds Banking Group revealed it is axing around 625 staff, with London and Edinburgh again hardest hit, provoking MacGregor to accuse it of "embarking on a strategy of 'death by a thousands cuts'".