Britain’s state-rescued lender Royal Bank of Scotland announced on Monday that it plans to axe 2,600 jobs.
The bank, which is 83-percent owned by the British government after an enormous bailout, will cut 2,000 jobs at its insurance division and another 600 positions at its retail head office, a spokesman told AFP.
“We are working hard to rebuild RBS in order to repay taxpayers for their support and having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of this process,” the spokesperson said. “We have strived at all times to be open and honest about the tough choices we are making.
“We will do all we can to support our staff through this process and do everything possible to keep compulsory redundancy to an absolute minimum. “So far the job losses we’ve announced to date have resulted in fewer than one in four people being made compulsorily redundant.”
There is no time frame for the job cuts, while the bank will concentrate its efforts on avoiding compulsory redundancies, according to the spokesperson. RBS had revealed last week that its net losses narrowed to 248 million pounds (287 million euros, 364 million dollars) in the first quarter, compared with one year earlier.
The embattled bank, which was rescued at the height of the global financial crisis, had reported losses after tax of 902 million pounds in the first three months of 2009.
London, May 10, 2010 (AFP)
