The Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to cut thousands
of jobs as part of a restructuringthat will see it scale back
operations and reduce operational costs by £2.5bn.
But UK IT workers could be spared as the bank focuses on its
retail operation in Britain.
RBS reported aloss for 2008 of £8.13bn before write-offs, which
are significant. The government has agreed to
inject up to £25.5bn into the troubled bank.
There is speculation that the bank could cut more than20,000
staffas part of its restructuring.RBSwill now focus on the UK
retail banking market,sothe countrywill avoid the majority of
cuts.
RBS
announced earlier this month it was cutting 2,300 jobs across
its back-office operations in the UK as it scales down its business
in response to the ongoing financial crisis.
The bank's manufacturing division, which is responsible for IT,
spent £1.75bn on technology services and support last year.
Ralph Silva, analyst at Towergroup, expects about 25,000 people
to lose their jobs. "These will be staff working in RBS's foreign
operations."
He said the fact that the bank plans tosell most of its non-UK
assets means its IT spend will probably fall by about 20%.
IT jobs and spend in the financialsectorhave been hit hardbythe
credit crunch, because falling business volumes need less IT to
support them. Additionally, companies are holding back investmentin
IT projects.