Royal Bank of Scotland was on Thursday expected to announce a further 2,000 jobs cuts, a day after chief executive Stephen Hester announced he would step down later this year.
The job cuts, expected to affect its global investment arm, are the latest since RBS was bailed out by the Government during the financial crisis. It has already cut more than 30,000 jobs since 2008.
Shares in the 81 per cent taxpayer-owned bank plunged by 7 per cent after the news broke.
Hester’s departure after five years spent overseeing the bank’s restructuring “increases the uncertainty around the shares and potentially delays further any return of the bank to private ownership,” said Gary Greenwood, an analyst.
The bank has now launched a search for a successor to Hester, whose leaving package includes a full year of pay, benefits worth 1.6 million pounds ($ 2.5 million) and a possible 4 million pound shares windfall from a long-term incentive scheme.
The bank made a loss of 5.2 billion pounds last year but returned to profit in the first quarter of 2013.