RBS bank shares gain on jobs cull reports

Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland gained on Friday as reports said that the state-rescued lender will announce next week that it is cutting its headcount by tens of thousands. RBS stock climbed 1.15 percent to 359.8 pence on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was up 0.43 percent in early deals. Newspapers said the announcement of a jobs cull, which could total at least 30,000 according to the Financial Times following a shake-up of the lender's investment banking and international divisions, would be made alongside its annual earnings statement due next Thursday. However around 18,500 of these would come from the already announced sale of RBS' US bank Citizens. Other reports said that tens of thousands of posts could go over the next five years. RBS refused to comment on the reports. The bank was rescued with £45.5 billion of British taxpayer cash at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis under the then-Labour government, making it the world's biggest-ever banking bailout. Former chief executive Stephen Hester earned the respect of the business community by axing 41,000 jobs, selling non-core assets and transforming the balance sheet at RBS, during his time at the helm. However Hester left RBS last year, reportedly at the request of Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne who wanted a new face to help guide Royal Bank of Scotland's return to private ownership. New Zealander Ross McEwan has since become chief executive of RBS, which is 81-percent owned by the British taxpayer. Last November, he announced plans to create an internal 'bad bank' to run down £38 billion of high-risk assets at the Edinburgh-based group.