LONDON - Royal Bank of Scotland says it is cutting 1,400 jobs from its retail banking operations over the next two years. The bank says the latest round of cuts affects support staff. Around half of those affected are based in Edinburgh, and most of the rest are in London. The bank has already slashed thousands of jobs since it was rescued by the British government in 2008 during the financial crisis.

LONDON - The Royal Bank of Scotland says it has named Bruce Van Saun chief executive of Citizens Bank, its U.S. business, ahead of its expected partial stock market flotation. Van Saun, currently RBS's finance director, will replace Ellen Alemany, who is retiring after more than six years. Nathan Bostock, currently RBS's chief risk officer, will replace Van Saun. RBS CEO Stephen Hester says 55-year-old Van Saun, who is originally from New Jersey, will lead Citizens in the run-up to the anticipated flotation.

LONDON - The Co-operative Bank on Friday sought to reassure its customers that it didn't need a government bailout after Moody's Investors Service downgraded the U.K. lender's debt ratings to "junk" status. Concerns about the bank's credit status had been rising since it pulled out of a deal to buy some 630 branches from another U.K. lender, Lloyds Bank.

Royal Bank of Scotland returned to profit in the first quarter with net earnings of £393 million ($610 million, 467 million euros) after a hefty loss a year earlier, the state-rescued lender said Friday. RBS said its profit after tax for the January-March period compared with a net loss of £1.545 billion in the first quarter of 2012 -- when the value of the bank's outstanding debt had significantly increased. "These results show pleasing progress in delivering a strong and valuable RBS for all our stakeholders," the bank's chief executive Stephen Hester said in a statement.