Bristol jobs to go in Royal Bank of Scotland cuts

Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut 14 per cent of staff in its NatWest and RBS branch network – equivalent to about 28 jobs in the Bristol area.

The troubled banking group, which is 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer, said yesterday that it would make 3,700 people redundant from a total 25,700 workforce at its 1,618 NatWest branches and 650 RBS branches.

The branch job losses come on top of the 10,000 back-office cutbacks unveiled in the UK earlier this year.

NatWest has 18 branches and RBS two branches across the Bristol area, employing around 200 staff between them in total.

The bank has yet to announce which branches will be affected by the cuts.

Britain is bearing the brunt of the redundancies at RBS, with only 6,000 jobs slashed overseas so far.

The part-nationalised bank has announced 19,700 job losses this year in total.

Banking experts believe that could rise to 25,000 once the strategic review being conducted by chief executive Stephen Hester is complete.

Staff were informed of the redundancies yesterday afternoon.

A spokeswoman said the bank needed to streamline the workforce because it had "30 per cent more staff carrying out administrative duties than competitors".

She said: "We have under-invested in the branch network in terms of processes.

"We are now improving them as part of a £6bn group-wide investment programme.

"We need to improve processes so staff can concentrate on customers."

No employees will leave the bank before May next year under the plan, with compulsory redundancies only being used as "a last resort".

The processes to improve customer service are already being implemented, RBS said.

The bank has been in discussions with Unite, the union. Lloyds Banking Group, the other state-backed giant lender, has also been paring back staff this year. It has announced more than 8,000 redundancies but analysts reckon that will increase to about 25,000 once integration of Lloyds TSB and HBOS is completed.