Royal Bank of Scotland will this week kick-start the integration of ABN Amro’s investment bank into its global markets division in a process that is likely to trigger the loss of about 7,000 jobs – or about 25 per cent of the combined 28,000 workforce.

The Scottish bank, which last week announced a £12bn rights issue, has so far made only relatively modest cuts to ABN’s investment banking unit, which it acquired in October as part of the €71bn break-up bid for the Netherlands lender.