RBS to cut 600 consumer-bank jobs

London - Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Britain’s largest taxpayer-owned lender, is planning to eliminate about 600 jobs at its UK consumer bank as it closes branches, according to a labour union.

The Edinburgh-based lender will cut about 200 positions across London and the south east of England, while a further 400 jobs will go in the midlands, east and the north of the country, Unite said in a statement on Thursday. The bank will also close about 32 branches as part of the changes, it said. A spokesman for RBS wasn’t immediately able to provide a comment.

“With job losses across the country and surviving branches on reduced hours, there’s no doubt this latest round of cuts will hurt the bank’s customers as well as our members,” Unite Regional Officer Lyn Turner said in the statement.

Chief executive officer Ross McEwan, 58, is cutting thousands of jobs and shedding assets around the world as he attempts to resume dividends for the first time since the bank’s £45.5bn taxpayer-funded bailout in 2008. Lower for longer interest rates from the Bank of England and slowing economic growth are pushing him and other bank executives to take out more costs to maintain profitability.

RBS employed about 27 100 staff at its personal and business banking division in the UK and Ireland at the end of last year, out of around 87 800 employees across all operations. Reuters reported the 600 job cuts at the retail bank earlier on Thursday.

“We have to take more cost out of this organisation,” McEwan told analysts on a call at the bank’s annual results in February. “We have to tough it up, and do it even further, given the rate environment going forward. Never an easy task.”