RBS axing 448 investment bank jobs

Royal Bank of Scotland is axing 448 investment banking jobs as part of a radical restructuring and is planning to transfer millions of pounds of pension-related costs on to employees, the Financial Times reported, citing a bank spokesman.

The report stated that the state-backed bank is cutting back office and middle office positions within its corporate and institutional bank under a strategy to shrink the division.

However it added that RBS is setting up 300 similar roles in India, joining its existing operations in the country, as a way to reduce costs. It is understood that the bank will reduce these outsourced roles over time as the investment bank continues to shrink.

The move comes only days after it emerged that the bank had cut 550 jobs at the bank, to be replaced with so-called robo-advisers.

RBS blamed falling demand for face-to-face services for the cuts, which were set to occur in its investment advice and protection advice divisions.

"As part of RBS’s drive to be a stronger, simpler and fairer bank, we have been restructuring our Corporate & Institutional Bank, as well as reducing its size, to focus on our core customers and products," the FT quoted the RBS spokesman as saying.

"As this process continues our frontline staff need a simpler, clearer, more efficient relationship with our middle and back office functions to better serve customers, so we’re reshaping our services business accordingly."

He said that the bank is attempting to “redeploy staff into new roles wherever possible”.

The latest phase of the restructuring follows eight successive years of net annual losses, which have amounted to more than £50bn since the financial crisis.