Bank will shed 3,700 UK branch jobs

Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut 3,700 jobs in its UK branch network

Royal Bank of Scotland is to cut 3,700 jobs across its UK branch network in a bid to modernise the way the bank operates, the company has said.

The redundancies follow a strategic review of the bank and will take effect from May next year.

The announcement comes as plans to break up RBS and Lloyds Banking Group following orders from the European Commission are set to be revealed.

The duo have been told to sell off parts of their business to safeguard competition concerns as the price of State support.

The Unite union angrily denounced the job losses as "absolute madness".

The bank said workers in branches were doing 30% more administration work than competitors and changes needed to be made to focus more on customer service.

Spokesman Brian Hartzer said: "We need to do better for all our customers and shareholders by modernising the way we operate as a bank. We have 30% more staff carrying out administrative duties per customer than our competitors and they spend less than half their time dealing with customers - we can and must do better.

"We have under-invested in our branches and customer infrastructure at a time when people are changing how they bank and changing what they expect their bank to do for them. We have to change that if we are to rebuild our success by serving our customers better.

"The job losses this means are deeply regrettable but are necessary. We don't like what that means for our people but will do all we can to ensure compulsory redundancies are kept to an absolute minimum.

"We'll look to mitigate the impact on our people by firstly seeking volunteers for redundancy, providing opportunities for flexible working and job-sharing as well as seeking redeployment opportunities where possible."