The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has issued a press release detailing a business plan for its back office operations that will involve up to 9,000 job losses globally. RBS had already cut 2,700 jobs from its 106,000 UK workforce this year.
The job losses will be in RBS's manufacturing division in areas such as technology and call centres. RBS is majority owned by the British government and also owns Ulster Bank in Ireland.
At the end of January Ulster Bank announced the two brands would be merged with 45 First Active branches closing and the remaining 15 being transferred to Ulster Bank, with the loss of 750 jobs.
It hopes to make most of the reductions through voluntary redundancies. It has identified 650 new job opportunities in the UK where staff can be redeployed.
The bank said the cuts were necessary to help restore profitability. RBS could be forced to cut even more jobs as its seeks to cut costs by £2.5 billion, or 14 per cent, over three years and return the bank to investor control.