“Since the acquisition of ABN Amro we have consistently said that as we brought our two wholesale banking businesses together there would be job losses over the course of the next two years,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

 “In light of current conditions in some parts of the global credit markets we are also looking at appropriate size for our businesses affected by this downturn.” Edinburgh-based RBS is reviewing all jobs in its global securities and corporate lending unit, and biggest reductions will likely be made in the enlarged debt trading and corporate lending businesses, said the people, who declined to be identified because the matter is confidential.
The job cuts would amount to almost 25 per cent of the more than 28,000 people at the division.  The planned cuts were reported earlier by the Financial Times. Chief Executive Officer Fred Goodwin announced plans last week to raise Pound 12 billion ($23.9 billion) and sell RBS’s insurance operations after ABN Amro acquisition and the credit crisis depleted capital.

Tumbling business

Banks and brokerage firms around the world have gotten rid of about 49,000 jobs in the past 10 months as revenue from fixed income and investment banking tumbles.

Last year, RBS led Spain’s Banco Santander SA and Fortis in the three-way, Euro 72 billion ($113 billion) acquisition of Amsterdam-based ABN Amro, the largest Dutch bank.  RBS, which kept the investment-banking and Asian operations, announced Pound 5.9 billion of writedowns last week on US mortgages, credit-related assets and leveraged loans, with about a third coming from ABN Amro.

The bank’s global corporate unit includes rates, commodities, currencies and credit as well as corporate lending and loans for leveraged buyouts. The bank may hire in areas such as commodities, foreign exchange and emerging markets, said the people.