{"id":11583,"date":"2017-02-24T16:11:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T16:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11583"},"modified":"2017-02-24T16:11:38","modified_gmt":"2017-02-24T16:11:38","slug":"stop-bank-closure-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11583","title":{"rendered":"Stop bank closure call"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The 72 per cent taxpayer-owned bank RBS \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which benefited from a \u00c2\u014145bn bailout after the financial crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c today (February 24) reported its ninth consecutive year of losses, as it struggles to pay off fines for past misconduct.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s loss of nearly \u00c2\u01417bn brings the bank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s total losses since 2008 to \u00c2\u014158bn \u00e2\u20ac\u201c far exceeding the \u00c2\u014145bn taxpayers fronted to save the bank from collapse. Recent losses include nearly \u00c2\u01416bn in conduct and litigation costs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of this figure, about \u00c2\u01413bn has been put aside to pay off the US department of justice over the bank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mis-selling of mortgage backed securities which helped precipitate the global financial crisis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RBS chief executive Ross McEwan has said that in order to fix the bank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problems, he would oversee a four-year long cost-cutting plan through 2020.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere will be job losses we have to go through and that will be across the business,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McEwan said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite has argued that such cost-cutting measures will invariably mean sacrifices from the workforce, who played no role in bankers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 past sins but are now yet again being asked to pay for them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers in finance continue to pay the price for the reckless greed and ambition of the past,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer Rob MacGregor. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bNearly 10 years on, shamed banker Fred Goodwin’s legacy haunts RBS employees and their families.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Stark reminder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

RBS boss McEwan noted that the fines the bank is still paying and which are contributing to its nearly decade-long stint of abysmal performance are a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bstark reminder of what happens to a bank when things go wrong and you lose focus on the customer, as this bank did before the financial crisis.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Unite has long argued that bank branches are the heart of a customer-centred approach \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that RBS has slashed 520 branches since 2014 shows that the bank under McEwan is still far from being focused on the customer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Between 2010 and 2016, RBS has cut 2,100 branches down to 1,600. It has also broken an explicit promise it made in 2010 to not to close branches that were the last in town. In 2015 alone, RBS left nearly 200 towns without a local branch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRBS is chief among its competitors in shutting branches and slashing jobs,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said MacGregor. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIts ruthless approach to pay for the mistakes of the past jeopardises customer service and risks leaving communities and businesses reliant on their local bank branch high and dry.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite RBS haemorrhaging tens of billions of pounds over the years, top earners at the bank continue to rake it in, with 87 bankers taking home more than \u00e2\u201a\u00ac1m (\u00c2\u0141850,000) each in 2016. The top eight earned \u00c2\u014111.3m between them, and McEwan last year was paid \u00c2\u01413.5m, including a \u00c2\u01411m role-based allowance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bonuses for staff on the other hand fell by 8 per cent to \u00c2\u0141343m. And despite top bankers earning six figures or more, the average annual salary at the bank is still little more than \u00c2\u014130,000.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RBS shares \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the majority of which are owned by taxpayers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c fell by 2 per cent after the latest profit losses were announced today to 244p, a massive drop from the 502p average price that taxpayers paid to bail out the bank.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Slammed<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

MacGregor slammed the reckless way that RBS is continuing to be run and called for an immediate moratorium on further bank branch closures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“After nine years of constant flux, taxpayers who still hold the majority of the shares in RBS, along with loyal staff and customers are left wondering when and where it is going to end,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 MacGregor said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile banking habits have changed, we would urge RBS and the government to pause and reflect on the bank’s current path, which risks cutting too far, by putting a moratorium in place on further branch closures.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite argues there is still a high demand for bank branches despite greater use of online banking.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last month, UNITElive reported<\/a> on a new survey which found that although 56 per cent of people used online banking last year, an astounding 44 per cent \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which accounts for some 20m people \u00e2\u20ac\u201c still did not use it, with many citing a poor broadband connection as a primary reason.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A separate survey by Accenture also found that the number of people using bank branches is actually going up, not down, with 53 per cent of those surveyed saying they visited their bank branch at least once a month this year, up from 47 per cent in 2010.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perhaps most surprisingly of all, people aged 18 to 21, dubbed \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Generation Z\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are using bank branches more than any other age group, with one in four using their branch at least once a week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 72 per cent taxpayer-owned bank RBS \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which benefited from a \u00c2\u014145bn bailout after the financial crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c today (February 24) reported its ninth consecutive year of losses, as it struggles to pay off fines for past misconduct.   Last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s loss of nearly \u00c2\u01417bn brings the bank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s total losses since 2008 to \u00c2\u014158bn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[32,292,123],"wps_subtitle":"RBS losses threaten jobs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11584,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11583\/revisions\/11584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}