By Lana Clements

The majority state-owned bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has today said it will be axing 3,500 jobs from its investment arm as part of a three-year plan to reduce the riskier operations of the company and focus on retail and corporate banking.

Most of the job losses are expected to take place this year, and come on top of 2,000 already announced. The fresh round of cuts will be from a mixture of UK and international offices.

In total, it's been estimated that RBS has made around 22,000 jobs redundant in the UK since it was bailed out.

RBS says it has had to make the fresh losses announced today to adapt to "significant new pressures" on wholesale banking. The plans also mean that the bank, 83% owned by the UK government, will shake off its equities and advisory service, either through a sale or closure.

RBS's investment operations are expected to shrink by £120 billion through the plans. Upon the news RBS shares rose by 3.5%

Group chief executive Stephen Hester, who is thought to be in line for a multi-million pound bonus, says: "Our goal from these changes is to be more focussed for customers, more conservatively funded, more efficient and with better, more stable returns for shareholders overall."

But David Fleming from the Unite union says: "It is a disgrace that while on a daily basis stories are emerging about the massive bonuses at the top of the bank, increasing numbers of jobs are being cut from amongst the hard working staff."