Royal Bank of Scotland is carrying out a review of its 20,000 global banking and markets workforce. The bank confirmed the staff review but refused to confirm or deny a report by financial news website Here Is the City yesterday that 15% of the combined ABNAmro/Royal Bank of Scotland Global Banking & Markets are likely to lose their jobs as the bank reviews headcount to reflect current difficult market conditions.

The site reported that John Hourican, the newly-appointed chief executive of the bank's Global Banking & Markets division, “is understood to have indicated to insiders that up to 3,000 staff will go in the next round of lay-offs, which will start in the coming weeks”.  

The site went on to claim the cuts will be made across all business lines in front, middle and back office, although the unit's credit markets origination business will be particularly affected (leveraged and structured finance, structured real estate capital, loan markets and syndication). It also added that other staff, likely to be laid-off, include those involved in credit trading, structured credit and on the exotics desks.

Linda Harper, Royal Bank of Scotland spokeswoman, told Recruiter: “We are constantly reviewing our business model to ensure we are in line with market conditions. We are not making any imminent announcement about the review.”