RBS to cut thousands more jobs

Issued : 12 January 2012


Morning Star


Unions called for top-level talks with British and Irish governments after the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland rolled out massive job cuts today.

Around 4,450 workers will get the chop over the next three years as RBS cuts back its investment banking arm and trims its Ulster Bank in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

That's around 3,500 from the investment banking arm plus 600 jobs in the Republic and another 350 in Belfast and other northern locations.

Larry Broderick from finance union Irish Bank Officials Association said it was a "very dark day for staff and customers" of Ulster Bank.

He said he was shocked at the scale of the cuts and would be seeking talks with Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, the Northern Ireland Assembly, Chancellor George Osborne and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Unite national officer David Fleming said RBS's decision to reduce staff at its investment division was "staggering."

He added: "It is a disgrace that while on a daily basis stories are emerging about the massive bonuses at the top of the bank, increasing numbers of jobs are being cut from amongst the hard-working staff."

SDLP chairman of Northern Ireland's Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee Alban Maginness added: "Ordinary workers are being cast aside which is deeply demoralising.

"This is simply going to plunge hundreds of families, through no fault of their own, into uncertainty and misery."

The new losses mean that nearly 11,000 posts have been cut at the investment division and 1,000 from Ulster Bank over three years.

In total the whole group, which is 83 per cent owned by the taxpayer, has shed around 33,000 jobs since it was bailed out in 2008.

These latest cuts will leave employee numbers at 5,150 in Ulster, 13,400 at the investment arm and around 140,000 worldwide.

The news comes amid reports that John Hourican, the head of GBM, is in line to pick up £4 million in long-term incentive shares that he was awarded in 2009.

But a question mark still hangs over the future of its corporate broking arm, the long-established City broker Hoare Govett, which was part of RBS's £48 billion joint bid for Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007.

Tony Patey