Why you really wouldn't want to work in RBS's back office

Royal Bank of Scotland has continued to strip jobs out of its back office - this time 500 roles are to be made redundant following the introduction of new technology system in its wealth management division.

Although Scotland will be affected by this latest round of cuts within RBS's private banks, Coutts and Adam &Co, it's unlikely to be hit particularly hard. The two firms employ a total of 3,500 people in the UK, and just 10% of these are north of the border.

The total number of jobs cut at RBS since the crisis began now hovers above 23,000, following the 2,600 positions in its insurance and retail banking divisions last month. Over 500 of these roles were lost as a result of the bank offshoring back office functions.

This time, new IT introduced into its wealth management arm is to blame - the "major investment in processes and technology" has allowed RBS to reduce the number of administration staff needed to service clients.

Understandably, Unite - the union which represents RBS workers - has reacted angrily, saying that it does not believe the investment in new technology "should go hand in hand with the shedding of jobs".

"Instead RBS should focus on ensuring that its staff can continue to give customers the high levels of service they expect from the Queen's bank," said Unite national officer Rob MacGregor.

The real worry should be just how many more back office roles are set to go. Sources tell us that RBS has been employing an army of IT contractors for various regulatory and integration projects, and the ongoing recruitment of change managers at the bank isn't exactly reassuring.

The bank admitted in May that it still had another 500m of cost reductions to deliver by 2011.

RBS certainly has a recent history of stripping out vast swathes of back office jobs - such as the 4,500 redundancies announced at its group manufacturing division back in April last year and the 2,300 roles axed in February 2009.