{"id":14667,"date":"2018-02-23T15:57:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T15:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14667"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:08","slug":"end-rbs-branch-closures-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14667","title":{"rendered":"End RBS branch closures call"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Unite Scotland held RBS branch protests today (February 23) as the bank announced top line profits before tax of \u00c2\u01412.2bn even amid a mass branch closure programme.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Even after tax, set aside for litigation and other costs, bottom line profits were \u00c2\u0141752m. This is the first in the black result for the bank in a decade.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite branded RBS pledges this week to focus on \u00e2\u20ac\u015brebuilding trust\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsupporting our customers\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshameless PR spin\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in the face of the continued closure programme.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe think RBS has to do its sums again on its closure programme,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite Scotland deputy Scottish secretary Mary Alexander.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need the actual figures they have used to decide where the axe is to fall on branches,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said closing 62 branches \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 10 have a stay of execution at present &#8211; will cost \u00c2\u01419.5m. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a drop in the ocean on the real operating profits they are now making. How can they justify taking the wrecking ball to communities all over Scotland?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week the bank was castigated for it culture of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098disgraceful behaviour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 promoted by its Global Restructuring Group (GRG) which crippled countless business customers with \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhigh interest rates\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmade up fees\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.\u00c2\u00a0 RBS accepted the Treasury Committee findings and announced \u00e2\u20ac\u015bour focus is now on rebuilding trust and supporting our customers\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis shameless PR spin is astonishing when compared to what RBS are doing in reality,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Alexander commented. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bRebuilding trust? Supporting our customers? Who do they think will believe them when they are closing branches all over Scotland?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite Scotland has established that whilst RBS delivers relentless spin about caring for its customers they are ruthlessly proceeding with the closure programme \u00e2\u20ac\u201c RBS staff now have targets to switch 50 customers on to digital banking every week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is the bank that likes to say one thing and do another,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Alexander added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are sparing no effort to create a self- fulfilling prophesy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite Scotland held RBS branch protests today (February 23) as the bank announced top line profits before tax of \u00c2\u01412.2bn even amid a mass branch closure programme. &nbsp; Even after tax, set aside for litigation and other costs, bottom line profits were \u00c2\u0141752m. This is the first in the black result for the bank in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[291,123,90],"wps_subtitle":"Unite urges rethink as RBS announces \u00c2\u01412.2bn profits","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14667"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14667"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26376,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14667\/revisions\/26376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}