ROYAL BANK of Scotland is to close its Telford office by 2012, with the loss of up to 500 jobs.

Part-nationalised RBS today announced plans to more than halve the bank’s administration centres across the UK with 3,500 staff being axed.

Bank bosses said the job losses would go across back office and IT functions in the business services arm – coming on top of the division’s 9,000 job cuts announced last year.

RBS’s Credit Management Services office at Ironmasters Way, in Telford Town Centre, will be one of 12 business service centres closed down over the next two years.

The bank, which is 83 per cent owned by the taxpayer, will also put a further three centres under review.

Nigel Meffen, of RBS West Midlands, confirmed staff in Telford had been told of the closure today.

“Telford office will close at some point over the next two years but staff will be given a 12-month notice period of the closure,” he said. “It’s very important to us to let our people know what is happening first, and there will be opportunities for some staff to move to other RBC centres.”

The bank’s office in Birmingham remains open and Mr Meffen said some Telford staff would be offered a chance to relocate.

All the 3,500 cuts announced will affect the bank’s UK administration workforce. 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 employ-ed about 45,000 globally.

RBS said about 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.

Today’s UK jobs blow comes just a week after RBS revealed that 14 of its 27 offices in the Churchill and Direct Line insurance arm were being axed.

Trade union Unite described the announcement as a “horror story”.

Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, 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 America.

By Business Editor Amy Bould