RBS chief moves to reassure staff on job losses

Royal Bank of Scotland Group CEO Ross McEwan moved to reassure staff that there will be “no big announcement” on job cuts when the lender publishes the results of its strategic review next week.

“This type of thing is frustrating and unsettling,” Mr McEwan wrote in a memo to staff. “This has been building over recent weeks and months and was always to be expected ahead of our strategy update.”

Mr McEwan, who replaced Stephen Hester as CEO in October, will next week detail his plan to shrink RBS’s investment banking and overseas units to focus on consumer and commercial banking in Britain, a source said. The overhaul will lead to job losses over the coming years, the source added.