RBS considers cutting 400 jobs at local branches and call centres

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has warned it is considering cutting back 400 jobs at local branches and call centres as part of its overhaul of its business unit. The bank says it is making changes to "provide a simpler, more efficient, more customer-focused service based on the changing way our customers want to interact with us". 

Hundreds of workers at Royal Bank of Scotland have been told they could lose their jobs in an overhaul of its service to firms.

About 400 staff in its business division have been warned that the state-owned bank is cutting staff at local branches and is also replacing dozens of call centres with just four sites.

RBS is the largest provider of accounts to small and medium-sized firms and it has more than 20 per cent of the market in England and Wales. The figure for Scotland is almost 40 per cent.

RBS jobs: Those at the highest risk of losing their jobs include business specialists in charge of lending money to small firms

Those at the highest risk of losing their jobs include business specialists in charge of lending sums of up to £25,000 to small firms. Business managers at call centres responsible for larger firms are also under threat.

The four call centres will be in Croydon, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

RBS, which is 73 per cent owned by the taxpayer, admitted that some staff had been told their jobs were at risk, but would not confirm the number. It said the changes were aimed at improving its service to business clients.

In a statement, the bank said: ‘We are making changes to provide a simpler, more efficient, more customer-focused service based on the changing way our customers want to interact with us.’

Some staff will be offered new positions, making the number of jobs lost less than 400.

Lloyds said earlier this month that it was to shut 29 branches and cut 1,580 jobs.