7000 bank jobs axed

BANKING giants RBS and Lloyds Banking Group axed more than 7000 jobs in Scotland in just 12 months.

The two Edinburgh-based institutions, which were part-nationalised during the credit crunch, have been steadily shedding employees in a bid to make savings.

Their staff numbers, along with those for the UK's other nationalised bank, Northern Rock, are now published under government figures for public sector employment.

During the first quarter of last year, the three banks employed 43,600 people in Scotland, but by the first quarter of this year, that had dropped by 17 per cent to 36,300.