260 RBS job cuts in Scotland

In amongst the brouhaha surrounding RBS deputy chief exec Gordon Pell's justification of Fred Goodwin's 700k-a-year pension comes the revelation today that redundancies among the bank's Scottish workforce are likely to reach the rather modest figure of 260.

Pell was meeting with MPs on the Scottish Affairs Committee to defend the reputation of 'Fred the Shred', saying that the controversy over his pension is a distraction from his many skills and contribution to RBS over the years.

However, he also confirmed that there would be 2,700 UK job losses at the bank, 260 of which would come from Scotland.

RBS was quick to dismiss the figure when we contacted them. A spokesperson said it was used to illustrate that there wouldn't be a disproportionately high number of job losses in Scotland.

"We haven't announced any specific figures geographically in the UK. Gordon Pell was trying to demonstrate that redundancies in Scotland are not going to be in their thousands," he said.

So, the bank claims that no decision regarding the future of its Scottish workforce has been taken, but which divisions are most at risk north of the border?

As we explained previously, the majority of cuts are likely to come from within retail and business banking, the group central functions and group manufacturing. Those unlikely to be trimmed to any significant degree include Adam & Co, global transaction services and the insurance arms.