Royal Bank of Scotland to Cut 3,500 Jobs

Early Thursday morning, headlines crossed saying Royal Bank of Scotland

is planning to cut 3,500 jobs within a three year period. The news came out at about 2:00 a.m. ET. Royal Bank of Scotland plans to exit or downsize existing businesses. Some of these include exiting from cash equities, merger and acquisition, and corporate brokering, to name a few. Royal Bank of Scotland said they would continue to invest in fixed income and currencies, while restructuring its investment banking unit. The bank plans on cutting GBM funded balance sheet by 300 billion British pounds over a three year period. Royal Bank of Scotland plans to sell its Asian investment banking unit, citing that the sale may be difficult because of the recent market volatility, but has decided to keep its Chinese security joint venture. However, Royal Bank of Scotland has said that there has been interest in its Asian cash equities operation by Chinese and Japanese suitors. Currently, shares of Royal Bank of Scotland are trading up over 4.5% at $7.11.