He will absolutely not confirm the 14,000 out of 18,000 figure at this time but he will say visions of a bloodbath are representative of how things are going to play out.

Like Bank of America, RBS has some big goals for the coming year, chief among them being the firing of several thousand investment bankers. (For those skeptical they can do it, according to a PowerPoint presentation presented yesterday, re: the "exits," quite a bit of progress has already been made.) Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, said it will cut 300 more jobs at its investment banking unit and is “on track” with its plan to exit businesses. RBS will eliminate 3,800 jobs at the division by the fourth quarter of next year, compared with an earlier target of 3,500, according to slides based on a presentation delivered by John Hourican, chief of markets and international banking, to analysts Monday. About 3,000 of the cuts will have completed this year, RBS said...The bank’s control of costs is “ongoing,” said Chris Kyle, chief financial officer of markets and international banking, at the presentation. “We will almost certainly hit this year’s number” in terms of the guidance, he said. Royal Bank Of Scotland Cuts 300 More Jobs At Investment Bank [Bloomberg] RBS Markets Investor Roundtable [RBS]

That's a lot of awkward conversations with HR.

The cuts are on top of Goldman's annual axing of the 5% of employees giving the bank a bad name.

The bank is set to ask half its bankers in Asia to clear out their desks.

Cuts are said to be going down at the bank circa now.

The House of Gorman is preparing for 4-figures worth of cuts.

John McFarlane's reputation for telling staff to GTFO precedes him.