Type
Internal restructuring
Country
United Kingdom
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
Sector
Financial Services
Financial And Insurance Activities
Financial Service Activities, Except Insurance And Pension Funding
64 - Financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding

472 - 770 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
23 March 2017
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
30 September 2017

Description

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced that 158 of its branches are set to close in the next six months, which will affect 770 staff all over the UK. In their statement the management of RBS said that 300 staff will be offered alternative positions, leaving a minimum of 472 employees at direct risk of redundancy as 30 RBS and 128 NatWest branches are to be closed.

According to RBS, the branch closures were prompted by customers increasingly turning to online banking. In her response, Gail Cartmail of the trade union Unite said that the closures are “bad news for our members who now have to live with the threat of redundancy” and “for customers and businesses” who will find it more difficult to access banking services.

Several bank branches  have closed in the UK in recent months, leading to large-scale redundancies, including the First Trust Bank, The Yorkshire Bank and the Lloyds Banking Group.


Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2017), RBS / NatWest, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 90614, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/90614.