RBS puts 10,000 jobs on the line

With all the recent scandals and collapses it appears that many organisations don't understand it either.

Investment Banking - What is it?

With regard to the possible 10,000 job losses, this is worrying times and this kind of large scale job losses is not really good for anyone. Hopefully a buyer will be found, preferably with the right stability and understanding of the markets and the impact will be greatly reduced.

We are now seeing not only the decline of the IFA sector with many older more experienced perfectly competent IFAs choosing to leave or retire early and sell their practices before they become worthless, but the decline of the banking investment sector

Apart from the fact that RBS was involved in many mis selling issues over the past few years, we need a strong financial industry in both forms, banking and IFA services.

Common sense and prudence in the way the industry undoubtedly needs to be changed has seemingly deserted the regulators and the banking CEOs.

More tax for less benefits to the taxpayers is all this will achieve.

If I could only change one thing, I would scrap the RDR, that would save regulated firms and indviduals millions, if not Billions of wasted fees and would allow us all time to adapt to the new world of Fee based advice and better qualified advisers.

The recent technology failings of the CIIs exam system is endemic in this debacle, it will drag on and the stress and anxiety created by this inadequate and totally bizarre method of increasing iFAs knowledge will cause many good people to leave this industry.

We need good people to move the industry forward, you only get that good with experience, knowledge of how to deal with the public and of course expertise in your chosen field.

New Year = no hope for many thousands of people in our industry because the mandarins at the FSA and of course the treasury cannot see beyond their own expense accounts and face the reality of what is happening they blindly follow the dogma set out last year in the RDR without any care as to the harm they will do. Pity the poor consumer who will ultimately lose out.

My test would be does this increase the value of RBS ?

Any enforced change makes you to reconsider your life, instead of simply drifting on.

Let us hope that the released talent is put to better use elsewhere.

Very sad. At a time when people are being urged to save for their future, every week more options for advice vanish (not that I'm saying the banks are the best place because they're not) my point, as has been mentioned, is that experienced people are deserting the industry and other's are simply losing their jobs.

The credit crunch was mainly brought about by short termism and the Gov and the FSA really need to examine their current plans for our industry because again, this is short termism, which in year's to come will leave millions with no savings because no one was there to advise them.

I am not sure that RBS exiting investment banking will cause "more options for advice to vanish". Investment banking is not about fund management, but using the banks' "own" money to invest in capital markets. Clearly, it is not just management who never understood investment banking!

I was quite amused by a recent RO1 revison question about who had overall resposibility for financial services regulation; the given answer was the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Hector must be told.

RBS have sold all their bank branches to Santander anyhow (by end 2012) so the "man on the street" has already lost another option regarding savings

I am not a current Adviser but have given Financial Advice in the past as a certified adviser. One of the things I learned was that qualifications are all well and good but it is the experience that is really vital. I have asked for help and advice from colleagues in the past over scenarios with clients and invariably it was always the old sages, that probably would fail a relicensing test that gave me the best advice. I have to agree that I believe that with RDR we are about to throw out the baby with the bath water!