RBS considers 2,300 more job cuts

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group has announced it could cut up to 2,300 jobs in Britain. The cuts would amount to around 2% of its local workforce of 106,000, the bank said in a statement.

The lay-offs will not affect customer-facing staff, but will be lost from its back office operations across the UK.

“We will be consulting with our recognised trade union, Unite, and our employees throughout. We fully agree with Unite that we must keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum and we will,” said UK chief executive Alan Dickinson.

The additional cuts come just four months after 3,000 job cuts were announced by the stat-owned bank. The firm is expecting to make an annual loss of between £7bn and £8bn for 2008.

It is also set to write down the value of assets, largely related to its takeover of ABN Amro in 2007, by up to £20bn.

Former RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin told MPs on Tuesday that he “could not be more sorry” for what had happened to the bank.