ROYAL Bank of Scotland is to restructure its business with the loss of up to 2,300 jobs, the company announced.

RBS said the cuts would not affect customer-facing branch staff, and pledged to make every effort to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum.

The bank, now 68%-owned by the Government, said the cuts represent around 2% of the group’s workforce of 106,000.

Alan Dickinson, chief executive of RBS UK, said: “We recognise that any news of this nature is unwelcome at any time. It is essential, however, that we consistently review our business to ensure that we are able to operate as efficiently as possible, especially in the current economic circumstances.

“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.”

Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, referring to apologies given by RBS and HBOS bosses before a committee of MPs yesterday, said: ``On the very day that sorry appears to be the easiest word for the bosses, 2,300 employees are left paying the price for management mistakes.

“The announcement by Royal Bank of Scotland that they plan to cut thousands of jobs marks a disastrous day for staff at the bank and represents a further blow to workers across the financial services sector.

“These job losses reflect the reality of the credit crunch, where staff face the ultimate penalty in the form of their jobs, while the senior bankers, who played Monopoly with the money of established finance companies, simply walk away with bumper pay-offs.

“Unite remains opposed to any possible compulsory redundancies as a result of this restructuring plan. The priority, through continued consultation, is now to ensure that every endeavour is made by RBS to avoid any such redundancies.”

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