Yahoo Finance RBS to sell London HQ as cost-cutting drive continues
Taxpayer-owned RBS is ditching the London headquarters from which disgraced former boss Fred Goodwin ran his bloated banking empire prior to the financial crisis.
The building in the City at 280 Bishopsgate will be vacated over the next two years and then sold off - and many employees will move a just a few doors down to 250 Bishopsgate.
It represents around a fifth of RBS’s floor space in London, with staff moving to its other offices in the capital.
The high street lender said the move would not involve immediate job losses, although it is part of ongoing deep cost-cutting designed to improve profitability and pave the way for the Government to begin offloading its 71pc stake in the bank.
Other cuts include plans to close a quarter of its branch network - 259 out of 1,003 - which have sparked a backlash from politicians, business groups and rural communities, particularly in Scotland.
An RBS spokesman said: “As we become a simpler, smaller UK focused bank and as we encourage more flexible ways of working, we no longer require the same amount of office space as we once did".
The building at 280 Bishopsgate, which RBS has occupied since 2002, covers almost 250,000 sq ft of floor space in the Square Mile. Its planned sale could prove a test of the resilience of the capital’s property market after Brexit.
Mr Goodwin, whose management style gained him the nickname ‘Fred the Shred’, led RBS through a period of reckless expansion from the 12th floor of the building. He stepped down when the bank was rescued with a £45bn state bailout.
Staff set to leave 280 Bishopsgate include RBS’s current executive team, including chief executive Ross McEwan and chairman Sir Howard Davies.
While most staff will move to a revamped 250 Bishopsgate - which RBS also occupies - others will move to offices in Angel and Bank.
