April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc may cut about 7,000 jobs at its global securities and corporate lending unit, or almost 25 percent of the workforce, following the purchase of ABN Amro Holding NV's investment bank and credit market losses, two people with knowledge of the plan said.

Chief Executive Officer Fred Goodwin announced plans last week to raise 12 billion pounds ($23.9 billion) and sell the Edinburgh-based company's insurance operations to shore up the balance sheet. Financial institutions worldwide are seeking about $217 billion from investors to replenish capital, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

RBS, Britain's second-largest bank, is reviewing all jobs in its global securities unit and the biggest reductions will likely be made in the enlarged debt trading and corporate lending businesses, said the people, who declined to be identified because the matter is confidential. The combined division has more than 28,000 people.

``This is more than just normal integration of two businesses,'' said Mike Trippitt, an analyst at Oriel Securities Ltd. in London who rates RBS ``hold.'' ``These businesses, even if they hadn't been merged, would be making job losses. Credit businesses and asset-backed businesses are going nowhere.''

RBS rose 5.5 pence, or 1.6 percent, to 354.5 pence in London trading. The stock has fallen 20 percent this year, compared with the 13 percent decline in the Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index.

The planned cuts were reported earlier today by the Financial Times.

`Appropriate Size'

``Since the acquisition of ABN Amro we have consistently said that as we brought our two wholesale banking businesses together there would be job losses over the course of the next two years,'' RBS said in a statement today. ``In light of current conditions in some parts of the global credit markets we are also looking at the appropriate size for our businesses affected by this downturn.''

Banks and brokerage firms around the world have cut about 49,000 jobs in the past 10 months as revenue from fixed income and investment banking tumbles.

RBS will eliminate ``notably more'' corporate banking jobs than it originally planned because of the seizure in credit markets, corporate lending head Johnny Cameron said last week.

The bank's global corporate unit includes rates, commodities, currencies and credit trading as well as corporate lending and loans for leveraged buyouts. The bank may hire in areas such as commodities, foreign exchange and emerging markets, said the people.

Last year, RBS led Spain's Banco Santander SA and Fortis in the three-way, 72 billion-euro ($113 billion) acquisition of Amsterdam-based ABN Amro, the largest Dutch bank. RBS, which kept the investment-banking and Asian operations, announced 5.9 billion pounds of writedowns last week on U.S. mortgages, credit-related assets and leveraged loans. About a third came from ABN Amro.

The bank paid ``a very high price'' for the ABN Amro units, RBS Chairman Tom McKillop told reporters on April 22. ``We increased our exposure to wholesale markets at what has turned out to be an unfortunate time.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Livesey in London blivesey@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 28, 2008 12:16 EDT