The jobs of more than 3,000 Bristol workers are in doubt after Royal Bank of Scotland admitted it would make job cuts.

The bank's new boss, Stephen Hester, has said job losses are likely to be part of his review of the company, which began in earnest yesterday, his first full day at the helm of the Edinburgh-based bank.

A full review of the company is under way following shareholders' almost unanimous approval of a £20-billion Government bail-out to remedy the firm's dire financial situation.

The cost-cutting programme is almost certain to have some impact on the bank's major back office operation at Temple Back in Bristol.

RBS posted a pre-tax loss of almost £700 million in the first half of 2008, after writing down £5.9bn on investments that became worthless because of unrecoverable debts in the US sub-prime mortgage market.

It is one of the biggest losses in Britain's corporate history, and the first time that the bank has plunged into the red in its 40-year history. It posted a profit of £5.1bn a year ago.

Mr Hester, who formally succeeded Sir Fred Goodwin as chief executive following the bank's general meeting at the Assembly Hall in Edinburgh on Thursday, admitted that job losses were almost inevitable in the current financial climate.

He said while there were signs that financial markets were stabilising, the world was facing up to a painful recession.

"My expectation is there will be job losses simply because economic activity levels will be lower," Mr Hester said.

Shareholders voted 99 per cent in favour of the £20bn rescue plan, which will see the bank offer £15bn in new ordinary shares, with the Government promising to buy up any remaining.

The Government has also committed to buying £5bn in preference shares, which RBS will buy back in time. But Mr Hester is already raising doubts about how successful the ordinary share issue will be as the 65.5p price is well above its current market value.

He said: "Shareholders are going to be economically rational and it will depend heavily on where the share price is when they have to make a decision."

During Thursday's meeting, outgoing chairman Sir Tom McKillop and former chief executive Sir Fred apologised several times to shareholders for the company's situation.

The drastic fundraising move – which could put nearly 60 per cent of the company in public hands – comes on top of a £12bn rights issue by RBS earlier this year before the financial crisis worsened.

Sir Tom told shareholders: "Stephen has the full support of us all in leading RBS back to the world-class status and financial returns that we can all be proud of. We must now look forward and this is the focus of everyone in the group. A new chapter in the RBS story must begin."