RBS chief 'must end' confusion

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A senior figure at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is facing calls to clear up confusion over planned redundancies.

RBS deputy chief executive Gordon Pell told MPs on the Scottish Affairs Committee 2,700 job losses were in the pipeline - including 260 in Scotland.

But an RBS spokesman later said that no firm figure for Scottish job losses had been decided.

Shadow Scottish Secretary David Mundell said Mr Pell should appear before the committee again to clarify matters.

Confusion arose when Mr Pell said 2,700 RBS jobs would be lost in the UK - 400 more than the figure announced by the bank last month.

RBS later explained that this number included 380 job losses at RBS Wealth and RBS International, which had been announced internally.

Commenting on the 260 figure for Scottish job cuts, a spokesman said Mr Pell was merely trying to "demonstrate that Scotland is not going to be affected disproportionately". I don't want them to have to spend the first three pages of every newspaper reading about Fred's pension Gordon PellRBS deputy chief executive

"It's not a figure that we can pinpoint at the moment," he said.

Labour MP Jim Devine said Mr Pell's evidence was "not convincing".

In his evidence, Mr Pell also suggested the reputation of former RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin would be partially restored.

He said attempting to defend Sir Fred in the current climate was "like Mission Impossible".

"If you actually go into Google at the moment and google Sir Fred Goodwin, you'll find well over 40 pages," he said.

"I would say at least 25 of them recognise his many skills, his many strengths, and the huge contribution he actually brought to Scotland during this period."

He told the MPs the continuing furore over Sir Fred's pension made it harder to raise morale among staff.

"I don't want them to have to spend the first three pages of every newspaper reading about Fred's pension - and then what we're actually doing positively comes in on page four," he said.

'Collective responsibility'

He said his organisation understood its "privileged position" with taxpayers as a result of the multi-billion pound government bailout.

Mr Pell said that as a member of the board of RBS during the takeover of ABM Amro, he took ''collective responsibility'' for the bank's financial problems.

He said he was not involved in any of the meetings to decide the terms or level of Sir Fred's pension.

He was accused by Conservative MP Charles Walker of "failing to grasp the gravity of the situation" or the public anger about RBS's situation.

After the hearing, Liberal Democract MP Alistair Carmichael said Mr Pell's comments showed that bankers had failed to appreciate the "sea change in public opinion".

"His view that history will be kinder to Fred Goodwin than contemporary analysis shows just how out of touch our senior bank executives are," he said.

The Scottish Affairs Committee also questioned Archie Kane, from Lloyds Banking Group.