RBS's UK staff are hardly slumming it

19 February 2010

2 minute read

Judging by the uproar around the $500m palatial surroundings Royal Bank of Scotland keeps its US-based investment bankers in, you'd have thought its Edinburgh HQ was some sort of highland shack.

It's not. Aside from the fact that RBS is considering selling the 335m Gogarburn Scottish development, which houses some 3,200 staff, it's (nearly) as much a state of the art complex as the plush new US office.

For pictorial evidence of the US office, you'll have to see the (copyrighted) pictures on the New York Times article, which describes it as "very bull market".

Here's Gogarburn:

Gogarburn

Ignoring the fact that it looks a bit like the London 2012 Olympics logo from above, it's actually very swish inside, as this PR shot shows:

Gogarburn

Obviously, Gorgarburn was opened in 2005, when RBS was at the height of its expansive powers, while the US investment bankers moved in last year, as it was slowly getting gobbled up by the government.

But, as Dealbreaker points out: "the cash bonuses they didn't pay their employees for the past several years mostly made up for the costs associated with building this place."

Yes, the US office might have one of the world's biggest trading floors, a sports bar, onsite massages, restaurants, and a one-acre roof garden with (allegedly) granite and mahogany surfaces, but Gogarburn has "a staff club, leisure centre with pool, children's nursery and a new conference and training centre which contains a 300 seat auditorium training rooms, seminar rooms and TV studio".

Oh, wait, what's this? It also has "a hairdresser, Tesco supermarket, newsagent, florist and branch bank." Is this really worth boasting about, even during these bleak times?

AUTHORPaul Clarke

dd
dd
25 February 2010
LOL at GoodbyePompey -- the problem with the ABN purchase was the price, not the people
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GoodbyePompey
22 February 2010
What's most of the ABN people who left were forced out - again FACT!
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GoodbyePompey
22 February 2010
LOL at Goldman Man - learn your history! ABN is primarily what caused the mess RBS now finds itself in....or do you have access to other info that the rest of us have yet to see? The vasy majority of credit problems were legacy ABN - fact! Plus ABN was always a tier 2/3 player,,,at its height RBS was at least half way decent. And it's not often I'd stick up for RBS but to suggest ABN was a better bank is simply ludicrous on so many levels!
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Goldman Man
22 February 2010
all the good employees were mostly the ABN Amro ones - most of whom have all left.
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GoodbyePompey
22 February 2010
Thursday earnings statement, or lack of earnings statement, will show RBS is as dead as the dodo. There is simply no way back and I think you will find all the good people left of their own accord many moons ago (Oct 08) lining up good jobs at smaller, but ambitious, firms. Just a few weeks back the last remaining talent left....He was a loyal fellow who tried his best, but ultimately realised no matter how much money he made for the firm they would never pay a decent bonsu, or salary for that matter.....
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