RBS 'Set For 4,000 Job Cuts Amid Boss Bonus'

Up to 4,000 more jobs at state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) are set to be cut amid reports the head of the affected division is due to receive a £4m bonus this year.

It comes despite the Prime Minister saying he plans to stop bosses being rewarded for failure.

The fresh job cuts are expected to be announced on Thursday in the investment banking arm, Sky sources say.

And they will come on top of 2,000 posts which the bank - 83% owned by the British taxpayer - said last summer would be lost.

Sky City editor Mark Kleinman said: "RBS will outline a restructuring plan that will see its global banking and markets (GBM) operation shrunk to reflect pressure from the Government for it to retreat from its ambition to be a global investment banking powerhouse.

"It will reflect the desire of George Osborne, the Chancellor, to see RBS cut back its investment banking arm."

Kleinman added: "Once the new cuts have been implemented, it will mean that in total up to 11,000 posts in RBS's investment bank, which currently employs 19,000 people, will have been slashed from the pre-banking crisis headcount of 24,000 staff."

John Hourican, the head of RBS' investment banking arm, is in line to receive the special bonus in April as part of a long-term incentive plan linked to the acquisition of ABN Amro in 2007, says the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph newspapers.

However, responding to the report, an RBS spokesperson told Sky News that it was "completely inaccurate to imply that any decisions have been taken" over payouts.

Mr Hourican was chief financial officer at ABN Amro Group before heading RBS' investment bank.

The 71.1bn euro (£59bn) takeover of the Dutch bank played a significant role in the failure of RBS.

At the bank's annual general meeting in 2009, the then-chairman of RBS, Sir Philip Hampton, said: "With the benefit of hindsight it can now be seen as the wrong price, the wrong way to pay, at the wrong time and the wrong deal."

David Cameron has said he is determined to end the "merry-go-round" of super-rich bosses rubber-stamping each other's enormous salaries and being rewarded for failure, adding that he wants to make changes this year.

In an interview with Sky News he said he would not comment on individual cases but suggested the RBS deal may have been agreed before his administration came to power.

"We've taken tough action... the overall level of bonuses has come right down but we're looking more broadly at top pay to make sure it is linked to success," he said.

A Downing Street spokesman said UK Financial Investments, which represents the Government's interests as a shareholder in partly state-owned banks, will "engage with RBS to discuss executive pay over the coming weeks and will make sure that pay reflects and rewards performance".

The Government holds 83% of the shares in RBS, but ministers cannot intervene directly in decisions on bonuses, as the bank is operated at "arms length".

Mr Hourican oversees 19,000 employees across 39 countries at the bank's global banking and markets division, which provides financing, risk management and advisory services to public and private institutions.

The benefits expected in April are almost 29 million shares and options granted in 2009 as part of a long-term initiative to restructure the group, according to the Financial Times.

However, in recent months RBS has been moving to offload assets, including the division that Mr Hourican leads, as it tries to repay some of the £45bn bailout it was given.