RBS set to slash 30,000 jobs over next few years

One of Britain’s largest banks, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), is set to slash tens of thousands of jobs over the next few years, in a belt-tightening restructuring plan amid tough economic conditions.

The bank announced Friday that it plans to offload parts of its international business and slash its investment banking division, taking with it at least 30,000 jobs over the next five years.

The bank, which owns NatWest and Ulster Bank, will markedly slim down its 11,000 investment bank staff as it withdraws from US and Asian markets.

It will also sell Citizens Bank located in the US, cutting an additional 18,000 jobs — the majority being in the US.

RBS has already slashed 40,000 jobs since it was rescued by the government in 2008. The British government now owns 80-percent of the bank following a near collapse during the international financial crisis.

Approximately 120,000 workers are employed with the bank, with experts saying the number of employees will drop by a quarter over the next five years.

This latest announcement comes as the bank said it lost 8 billion pounds for 2013, amid the Libor financial scandal that tarnished the bank’s reputation.

The bank was fined £390 million by UK and US authorities over its involvement in the manipulation of the leading short term interest rate index.

RBS is the latest bank to settle with regulators after British bank Barclays did last summer and Swiss bank UBS did in December.