Part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland is cutting 2,600 jobs in its insurance and British retail banking operations, to add to 20,000 layoffs since the start of the financial crisis.
RBS, 83 per cent owned by the British taxpayer, will cut 2,000 jobs in its insurance operation.
European regulators are forcing RBS to sell its insurance arm by 2012, as a cost for taking taxpayer bailouts, and the layoffs accelerate cost-cutting at the business before its sale or flotation.
RBS is cutting 600 jobs from its retail banking head office operations. The bank is selling 318 branches as part of the EU's remedy requirements.
The bank said the cuts will take effect over the next year and affect staff at sites across the country. Up to 500 of the insurance back office jobs could go offshore.
"We are working hard to rebuild RBS in order to repay taxpayers for their support and having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of this process," the bank said in a statement, adding it will aim to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum.
RBS's 20,000 layoffs since being hit by the financial crisis include 14,000 in Britain. Fewer than one in four of the cuts have been forced redundancies, it said.
Reuters