RBS to shed 2600 insurance and retail banking jobs

[Mellijelli]

In the Herald Scotland today, first Minister Alex Salmond is to hold urgent talks with the Royal Bank of Scotland after it announced it was to cut 2,600 insurance and banking jobs over the next year.

This means that 2000 jobs will go in the insurance division and a further 600 will be lost at its retail banking headquarters in Edinburgh and London .

RBS said it had accelerated the plans after the European Commission announced it must sell more than 300 branches as well as the insurance business by 2013 to soothe competition concerns following its state bailout.

On the brighter side of things Tesco Banking and Esure are planning to expand in Scotland at some stage.

RBS, which pledged last year to identify £2.5 billion a year in cost savings, has announced the axing of around 22,600 jobs – of which 6,600 have fallen in the UK – as it seeks to become profitable again after the ravages of the financial meltdown and the disastrous acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro.

Rob MacGregor, of the union, said the 25% cut to the retail banking headquarters was an “eye-watering reduction”.

He added: “This comes barely 12 months after a previous job-shedding restructure in this business area of the bank’s.”

Last week, Mr Hester warned market volatility could make it harder for the bank to return to profit and also warned of more job losses to come.

RBS recorded a £248m net loss in the first quarter of the year.

2000 insurance division jobs axed

Some 2,000 out of out of 16,000 insurance division jobs are to be axed, from back office staff to managers.

It will cover Churchill, Direct Line, Green Flag and Privilege, which has main employment centres in Glasgow, Bromley in Kent, Leeds and Bristol.

Some 600 out of 2,100 retail banking jobs at the company’s headquarters will be lost, with RBS’s head offices in Edinburgh and London bearing the brunt of the cuts.

It is estimated 500 of the jobs being lost will be outsourced to India.

Do you think that all these job cuts going on is to try save the economy in some or other form or will it just continue on like this indefinitely without more jobs being created in the future?? Where will all these people without jobs go to find work, and why are they outsourcing jobs to India? I know its cheap labour and all that but what about the citizens of Great Britain??

[Saorsa1]

Cheap labour, yes.

When you don't control such institutions they do what they like.

We don't have a country, so we can't make laws to prevent jobs that could be done here being sent abroad.

I would put a tariff on all employment that can be done here being done elsewhere.

Still, when you let big business dick you willy nilly, there but remains just to bend over.

I for one will not bend.