RBS to cut 1,000 IT roles

Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it will cut 3,500 jobs, 1,000 of which are in IT support

84 per cent taxpayer-owned RBS is cutting a further 3,500 UK jobs

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is planning to axe 3,500 UK jobs from its technical and back-office division.

The roles comprise 1,000 jobs in IT support and 2,500 in support services to its other businesses.

Around 1,500 of the job cuts are related to RBS’s sale of 318 bank branches to Spanish bank Santander, as ordered by the European Commission. The other job losses will be caused by the closure or withdrawal from 12 UK support centres, with another three centres currently under review.

RBS has already cut 15,000 positions over the past two years and this latest announcement comes just weeks after RBS announced half-year profits of over £1bn.

The bank has revealed that it intends to offshore more than 500 roles to its existing non-customer facing technology operations in US, India and the Far East.

"Having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild RBS and repay taxpayers for their support," the bank said in a statement.

"We continue to make efficiencies across our business and adjust our plans in line with the divestments we have been required to make by the European Union."