Royal Bank of Scotland is axing another 3,500 jobs under plans to more than halve the bank's administration centres across the UK, it was announced today.

Part-nationalised RBS, which owns Ulster Bank, said the job losses would go across back office and IT functions in the business services arm - coming on top of the division's 9,000 job cuts announced last year.

The bank, which is 83% owned by the taxpayer, will close 12 of its business services centres across the UK and put three under review.

RBS said the latest jobs cull would start next year and run through to the end of 2012.

The jobs blow, which does not affect Ulster Bank, comes just a week after RBS revealed that 14 of its 27 offices in the Churchill and Direct Line insurance arm were being axed.

Trade union Unite described the announcement as a "horror story".

Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said it would be a particularly "bitter pill for staff to swallow" as RBS has decided to move 500 of the jobs offshore to the Far East, India and America.

He said: "The scale of the cuts announced today beggars belief and staff across the country today will be left reeling from this news."

All the 3,500 cuts announced will affect the bank's UK administration workforce. RBS said it had almost completed the 9,000 job losses first revealed last year, of which 4,500 were in the UK.

The business services division previously employed around 45,000 globally.