Royal Bank of Scotland to cut 1,800 jobs

The Royal Bank of Scotland said Tuesday that it planned to eliminate as many as 1,800 jobs at its Ulster Bank Group unit in Ireland as it aimed to make the business profitable again by 2016.

Ulster Bank, which has been weighing on Royal Bank of Scotland’s earnings since the financial crisis and the collapse of the Irish real estate market, is in the process of closing 63 branches by the end of next year. It plans to reduce the number of jobs to as few as 4,000 in 2016 from about 5,800 last year, Ulster Bank said in a presentation to investors.

The Ulster Bank Group had to be rescued with $22 billion worth of capital from its parent, Royal Bank of Scotland, which itself was bailed out by the British government in the financial crisis in 2008.