RBS to axe 2,300 UK jobs as former boss says he is 'sorry'

Bosses' pay at UK banks receiving government support

  Position Total pay (including bonuses) 2007 RBS     Sir Tom McKillop Chairman £750,000 Sir Fred Goodwin Group chief executive £4,190,000 Johnny Cameron Chairman, global markets £3,256,000       HBOS     Lord Stevenson Chairman £821,000 Andy Hornby Chief executive £1,926,000 Peter Cummings Chief executive, corporate division £2,606,000       Lloyds TSB     Sir Victor Blank Chairman £661,000 J Eric Daniels Group chief executive £2,884,000 Terri Dial Group executive director £1,995,000       Bradford & Bingley     Rod Kent Chairman £265,000 Steven Crawshaw Group chief executive £1,112,548 Chris Wilford Group finance director £700,572       Northern Rock     Matt Ridley Chairman £223,000 Adam Applegarth Chief executive £785,000 David Baker Deputy chief executive £476,000

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it will cut up to 2,300 jobs as it restructures the business.

The jobs will be lost from its back office operations across the UK.

RBS said it hoped to keep compulsory redundancies "to a minimum", and said that there would be no cuts among its customer facing staff.

The bank needed a government bail-out last year. In exchange for £20bn of public funds, the government now has a stake of almost 70% in the lender.

The cuts represent about 2% of RBS's UK workforce of 106,000 employees.

RBS UK chief executive Alan Dickinson said he recognised "that any news of this nature is unwelcome at any time".

"It is essential, however, that we consistently review our business to ensure that we are able to operate as efficiently as possible, especially in the current economic circumstances," he added.

RBS shares closed down 4%.