RBS Plans Up to 20,000 Job Cuts, Sales on 30 Billion-Pound Loss

By News on the Net —— Bio and Archives February 15, 2009

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the biggest U.K. government-controlled bank, plans to cut as many as 20,000 jobs and pull out of several emerging markets as it announces losses of 30 billion pounds ($43.1 billion) next week, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information.

The proposals also include plans to sell dozens of businesses considered to be non-essential, as well as parts of ABN Amro Holding NV, which it acquired in 2007, the newspaper said. The reductions aim to slash hundreds of millions of pounds from the Edinburgh-based bank’s costs, the Times said. Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester is completing plans ahead of the bank’s results next week, which are likely to reveal losses and impairments of up to 8 billion pounds and as much as 20 billion pounds in goodwill writedowns related to the purchase of ABN, the newspaper said...more