Royal Bank of Scotland to close half of its insurance offices

In a rather disappointing and surprise move it has been announced that Royal Bank of Scotland will be closing half of its insurance offices with Glasgow, Peterborough and Bristol earmarked for closure. This will result in well over 1000 jobs being lost amid signs that the company is looking to trim down its insurance operations, which include Churchill and Direct Line, ahead of a forced sale by the European Commission.

The company has already tried unsuccessfully to auction the two main insurance divisions although due to the fact that the UK government stepped forward with significant taxpayer backing it is now being forced to push these two operations towards new owners. When you consider that Churchill and Direct Line have been two of the most successful subsidiaries of Royal Bank of Scotland it seems rather bizarre that the company is being forced to sell the crown jewels to pay down debt and abide by EU state funding regulations.

There will no doubt be a number of competitors already looking over the books of these two operations which are two of the best known in the UK and two of the most successful.