Royal Bank of Scotland to move some back-office jobs to India

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Britain's largest state-owned bank, is planning to cut nearly 160 jobs in the UK and offshore around 60 of them to India, Unite the Union, the UK's largest union, has said.

RBS has been scaling down its retail operations and the latest job cuts are part of wider cost-cutting measures, the union, which represents the bank's staff, said, adding that around 60 back-office roles are to be moved to India.

Edinburgh-headquartered RBS said it is looking at ways of redeploying the staff and that the bank would ensure minimum job losses in any restructuring.

"We will do everything we can to support staff, including seeking redeployment opportunities wherever possible and ensuring that compulsory redundancies are kept to a minimum," the bank said in a statement

''These changes will mean our relationship management teams can do things more effectively and efficiently and provide the best service to our customers,'' it added.

However, the union is furious at the state-owned bank using taxpayers' money to support jobs overseas at the cost of domestic jobs.

''Experienced and skilled staff, which service the business customer relations teams will today be devastated by news that their jobs could be lost.

''It is a further insult that Royal Bank of Scotland, as a taxpayer backed bank, will be sending 60 roles which are being done in the UK offshore to India,'' said Unite national officer Rob Macgregor.

''The roles impacted today are vital to the service business customers enjoy with local support teams and Unite has a real concern that such a loss will be detrimental to customer service,'' he added.

The retrenchment is planned across 54 offices in the UK between May and August 2015, according to the union.

RBS, which has been in India since 1921, is present in 10 locations in the country and serves clients' needs including in the debt capital markets, international transaction services, forex and rates as well as providing balance sheet advisory and structuring.

Its clients comprise blue-chip Indian corporations, leading multinational corporations, large financial institutions, the Indian Government and high net-worth individuals.