Royal Bank of Scotland is to shed a further 3,500 members of staff.

This comes as a result of its recent sale of 318 branches to Santander, forced by EU regulation following the government bail-out.

RBS said the jobs would be lost in back office and technology departments. Business Services Operations will see 2,500 losses while Technology Services faces 1,000 losses.

The losses will be driven by the closure or withdrawal from 12 UK centres and a further three centres are under review.

Unite the union called the news a “horror story.””