RBS to close many insurance offices
August 30, 2010 by Reno
Filed under News, News-Insurance
It has been announced that Royal Bank of Scotland is being forced to close half of its insurance offices. This comes after the taxpayer bailout that resulted in the company being forced to sell its Churchill and Direct Line insurance divisions. Under the plans there will be two thousand jobs axed at the division, as the lender prepares to sell its insurance business.
Glasgow will see two offices being closed, causing the loss of over six hundred jobs. There are also closures expected in Peterborough and Bristol, which will see another six hundred jobs go. Union officials are angry about the measures because they blame the loss of hundreds of jobs on the failures of the bank, which was one of those that had to be bailed out using taxpayer’s money.
The global credit crisis caused the near collapse of the banking system in the UK, and whilst the troubled Northern Rock was the first major victim of the financial crisis in the UK, and had to be nationalised after it became the first victim of a run on a British bank in a century and a half, a number of other big name High Street banks ended up following its footsteps.
Whilst it is taxpayer’s money that has resulted in the bank being bailed out lenders are still being very cautious when it comes to providing finance to consumers and businesses, which has already caused a lot of controversy. The loss of jobs resulting from these RBS closures will now cause more controversy, as the blame has been laid squarely at the feet of the bank itself by union officials.
Tags: insurance divisions, lender, Insurance, British bank, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, finance, rob macgregor, directUnion Unite official Rob MacGregor said: ‘RBS staff are continuing to pay the price for the bank’s failure with their jobs.’
