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Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed that a further 3,700 retail banking jobs are to go, and sadly a large proportion of those are likely to be north of the border. The bank has also confirmed details of the terms of its asset protection scheme (APS) participation, which will see branches sold in Scotland.

RBS wasn't forthcoming on exactly where the latest round of redundancies will occur, but unions say they will predominantly affect the RBS-branded branches. Scotland is home to 340 of these, compared to 312 in England and Wales, so is likely to feel greater pain in the latest round of cuts.

A spokesman for Unite said: "We expect these cuts to affect branches across the UK as a whole, but we believe Scotland may get a disproportionate hit as a result."

RBS has also outlined the terms of its APS scheme participation and, as has been widely speculated, it is going to sell off its Scottish NatWest branches – rebranded as Williams and Glynn. It will also divest its insurance divisions and parts of its investment banking business.

In spite of talk in the Scotsman of unions suggesting a "rush to the door" at RBS, rather than staff waiting for potentially compulsory redundancies, it's doubtful they'll find many other opportunities at the moment.

Lloyds Banking Group has also confirmed that it will sell the whole of its Lloyds TSB network in Scotland, which employs 7,200 staff in 187 branches. This is part a wider sell off demanded by the European Commission to safeguard banking industry competition concerns following UK state bailouts.

At the moment, potential purchasers include Tesco, Santander, National Australia Bank, Virgin Bank and Scottish investment banker Ben Thomson who plans to create an independent financial institution north of the border.

Brian Hartzer, chief executive of RBS's UK retail, wealth management and Ulster Bank Group, said: "We have 30 per cent more staff carrying out administrative duties per customer than our competitors, and they spend less than half their time dealing with customers – we can and must do better. We have under-invested in our branches and customer infrastructure at a time when people are changing how they bank and changing what they expect their bank to do for them."