JOBS are safe at Southend's Royal Bank of Scotland offices - despite the announcement 7,000 posts could go across the company.

RBS, which has a huge credit card operations centre in Prince Avenue, has taken over Netherlands investment bank ABN Amro. The takeover is expected to trigger job losses. But it is understood this will not affect retail, which is the area that the 2,000 staff at Southend work in.

Fiona MacRae, spokesman for RBS, said: "Since the acquisition of ABN Amro we have consistently said as we brought our two wholesale banking businesses together, there would be job losses over the course of the next two years.

"This is unfortunate, but inevitable."