[ by Howard Haykin ] Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), U.K.’s biggest taxpayer-controlled lender, announced plans to eliminate 618 branch-based financial advisers, and will begin to charge clients for the service.  On the flip side, RBS also is creating 351 financial-planning jobs - as a result of rule changes. Regulator's Actions Prompting RBS Actions. As part of its consumer protection strategy, the Financial Services Authority, U.K.'s regulator, established its 'Retail Distribution Review' strategy that will prevent the payment of commissions to advisers, beginning after the close of 2012. In response, lenders are preparing to charge for the service.  HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) said in June, one year ago, that it was cutting 700 employees offering face-to-face advice in branches, while Barclays Plc, Britain’s 2nd-largest bank, said in January 2011 it would cut 1,000 employees as a result of the regulations. "These latest RBS job losses are brutal," union official David Fleming said in a statement.  "We've had, for some time, "major concerns about the appalling manner in which these workers at the bank have been treated.” The Toll At RBS. Under RBS CEO Stephen Hester, who's done a masterful job righting the RBS "ship" - the bank has shrunk assets by more than 700 billion pounds ($1.1 trillion) and cut some 36,000 jobs since he took over from Fred Goodwin in 2008.  RBS said in January it anticipated cutting about 3,500 jobs at its investment bank, citing volatile markets and the cost of new U.K. regulation. "Having to cut jobs is the most difficult part of our work to rebuild RBS and repay taxpayers for their support," an RBS spokesman said in the statement.  "We will do all we can to support our staff, offer redeployment opportunities wherever possible, keeping compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum." [Bloomberg, 6/19/12]