The Royal Bank of Scotland is cutting over 600 jobs from its financial planning service ahead of the RDR.
The bank says it has taken the decision to reduce its financial planning unit in response to the RDR and the impact this will on the number of staff needed to deliver advice.
RBS says while it is cutting 618 jobs across the UK, it will also be creating 351 new roles.
A spokeswoman for RBS says: ?The RDR legislation takes effect from December 31, 2012 and will have a fundamental effect on how financial institutions deliver advice to customers across the whole industry, and for the workforce involved.
?From December 31, customers will be charged a fee for the advice they receive from a qualified professional.? If our customers choose financial advice for investment products the costs will be made transparent at the outset.?
She adds: ?Having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild RBS and repay taxpayers for their support. We will do all we can to support our staff, offer redeployment opportunities wherever possible, keeping compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum.?
The union Unite says the move represents a 50 per cent reduction in the financial planning unit across the country.
Unite national officer David Fleming says: ?These latest RBS job losses are brutal. 600 staff, who for some time have faced job uncertainty as the bank reviewed their jobs, have today heard the worst possible news.???
?Unite, for some time, has had major concerns about the appalling manner in which these workers at the bank have been treated. The union has continually raised with the bank the increasingly unachievable targets imposed on the workforce and is calling on it to review this redundancy procedure.?
The move follows HSBC?s decision in April to scrap its tied advice service resulting in up to 650 adviser job losses. HSBC is retaining its whole-of-market advice service and its execution-only service.
Other banks have begun to signal their plans for offering branch-based advice post RDR. Money Marketing revealed in February that Lloyds Banking Group is splitting its offering between basic protection advice and a financial planning service. Nationwide Building Society is piloting a fee-based advice service which will deliver advice as part of its single-tie agreement with Legal & General for investment business.
The issue of how and whether banks will offer advice to their customers as of next was thrown into the spotlight when Barclays decided to close its financial planning arm in January 2011 and exit the market for retail consumers.
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