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The part-nationalised bank said the losses would go across back office and IT functions in the business services arm.

The cutbacks - part of plans to more than halve the bank's administration centres across the UK - come on top of the division's 9,000 job losses announced last year.

The bank, which is 83% owned by the taxpayer, will close 12 of its business services centres in Britain and put three under review.

RBS said the latest jobs cull would start next year and run through to the end of 2012.

The cuts were announced just a week after RBS revealed 14 of its 27 offices in the Churchill and Direct Line insurance arm were being axed.

Trade union Unite's Rob MacGregor described the announcement as a "horror story".

He said it would be a particularly "bitter pill for staff to swallow" as RBS has decided to move 500 of the jobs offshore to the Far East, India and the US.

Sky's business correspondent Dharshini David said: "The unions... point out that about 500 of these jobs, they claim, are actually going to be 'offshored'.

"They ask whether this is really the right thing to do for a company which is effectively owned by the British taxpayer."

RBS said it had almost completed the 9,000 job losses first revealed last year, of which 4,500 were in the UK.

The business services division previously employed around 45,000 globally.

The bank will retain 10 back office centres, but those in the following sites will be affected: Leeds, Bolton, Enfield, Harrogate, Bristol, Borehamwood, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Telford, Bradford and Norwich.

RBS said around a third of the job cuts come as a direct result of the sale of 318 branches to Santander, which it was ordered to offload by the European Commission.

In a statement, the firm said: "Having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild RBS and repay taxpayers for their support.

"We continue to make efficiencies across our business and adjust our plans in line with the divestments we have been required to make by the European Union."

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