Royal Bank of Scotland-NatWest group is to cut almost a quarter of its investment banking staff in the United States, it emerged on Wednesday.

RBS-NatWest will axe up to 90 jobs at its US head office in Stamford, Connecticut.

The job cuts are the first move in a plan to cut up to 30% of NatWest Markets’ non-UK workforce.

“In line with the multi-year process announced in February, we continue to progress our plan to refocus NatWest Markets on activities which directly support the bank’s core customers and on areas where we will have a more stable and consistent revenue stream,” a spokeswoman for NatWest Markets told Reuters. 

“These are always difficult decisions, but we intend to make NWM a more sustainable business and will be supporting our colleagues through this process.”