550 jobs to be lost as RBS plans to automate investment advice

550 jobs to go at RBS

RBS plans to restrict face-to-face advice to people with more than £250,000 to invest as it strives to reduce costs after losing £2bn, this is the eighth consecutive annual loss posted by the struggling bank.

A spokesperson for the bank said “these changes are being made as more and more of our customers prefer to bank with us using digital technology”.

As a result “ we are scaling back our face-to-face advisers and significantly investing in an online investing platform that enables us to help a new group of customers with as little as £500 to invest.

This will affect customers who are looking for advice on products such as life insurance, which will only be available by phone, resulting in around 250 job losses.

The bank blamed a reduction in the number of customers using their insurance services for the move to a telephone only service.

Another 220 jobs will go with the introduction of a new online investment platform, there will also be 250 jobs lost in the insurance services division as well as 80 administrative support staff.

There is some good news for the tax payer though as RBS is paying back £1.2bn to the Treasury to buy out a crucial part of its £45bn bailout in a step towards returning the bank to the private sector.

RBS is making the payment to end an agreement with the government, which stops the bank paying dividends to any shareholders before the treasury. This is being done despite the fact they are not ready to start issuing dividends to shareholders.

Controversially the bailed-out bank still handed out its top management team future bonuses in shares worth more than £17 million pounds despite falling £2 billion into the red.

At Hoskin financial Planning we still offer a free face-to-face consultation and although we use obviously computers, we believe that getting to know you is the most important part of what we do. If you would like some help or advice please call us on 01621 876030 or visit www.hoskinfinancialplanning.co.uk

For help and advice please do not hesitate to contact us at Hoskin Financial or Hoskin Home Loans

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