Coutts jobs sacrificed to technology

RBS, which is 83 per cent owned by the Government, said the cuts will affect back-office roles across the UK for its wealth management brands – Coutts, the Queen's private bank, and Adam & Co.

RBS, headed by Stephen Hester, declined to say where the cuts will be made.

Coutts has an office in Leeds and is based in London, while Adam & Co is Edinburgh-based. The jobs will go over the next three years.

The latest cull comes less than a month after RBS announced 2,600 roles will go at its insurance and retail banking arms.

An RBS spokesman said the group would keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum. "We are working hard to rebuild RBS in order to repay taxpayers for their support and having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of this process," he said.

Unite national officer Rob MacGregor said: "Unite does not believe that the introduction of and investment in new technology should go hand-in-hand with the shedding of jobs.

"Instead RBS should focus on ensuring that their staff can continue to give customers the high levels of service they expect from the Queen's bank."

The latest cuts bring the total job losses at the company to 23,100 – 17,100 of them in Britain – since the start of the financial crisis.