RBS IT workers hit by job cuts

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to shed around 700 jobs in its IT and property divisions over the next few months.

The job losses are part of a bank-wide effort to cut £2.5bn in costs which on 7 April this year saw the organisation announce it is to shed around 9,000 jobs globally including around 4,500 positions in the UK.

When asked what proportion of these 700 jobs are likely to be IT-related, an RBS spokeswoman told silicon.com: "We don't know until we work through the process what that breakdown will be."

She added a timescale for the job cuts is yet to be set but the process of deciding how the cuts will be distributed is likely to take a "couple of months".

Jobs cuts in the property division of the banks could also have an IT impact: the property division of the bank encompasses staff involved in the running and maintaining of the bank's property portfolio including branches, offices and datacentres.

The RBS cuts follow a spate of similar reductions at other financial services institutions: late last year, Credit Suisse and HSBC announced plans to axe 1,150 IT jobs between them, while earlier this month Barclays announced up to 350 additional IT positions were to be cut.