The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is expected to confirm plans to reduce its investment banking division in a statement later on Thursday.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it is planning to cut 3,500 jobs.
It is understood the bank is planning to merge or sell a number of divisions, affecting up to 4,000 staff, though many of these will be outside the UK.
The cuts are part of a reorganisation and shrinkage of its investment bank following a review launched in 2009.
RBS hopes that staff will be transferred rather than made redundant.
The losses, which will be split between its UK and international offices, come on top of 2,000 cuts announced earlier.
The bank is expected to sell its equities division and its corporate broker, Hoare Govett.
Its "wholesale banking" business, which provides services to large clients including investment banking services, will be split into separate "markets" and "international banking" divisions.
Other parts of the investment bank may be merged with its payments systems division.
The markets division - which comprises RBS' main trading activities - will focus on the bank's traditional strengths of debt, currency and money markets.
Another area of the bank's operations likely to be affected are its operations in the Irish Republic, including employees at subsidiary Ulster Bank, which RBS bought in 2000.
The wholesale banking division will provide services for the bank's biggest clients.
The firm has also reportedly received interest from potential buyers for its Australian business.
These will include corporate advisory services transferred from its investment bank - such as helping major companies borrow money by issuing bonds - as well as cash management and payments services.
RBS's investment banking division has traditionally been stronger in debt and money markets, says the BBC's Business Editor, Robert Peston.
The bank said that it planned to close or sell off other business lines, such as those dealing with shares and stock markets, as well as its business advising companies on mergers and acquisitions.
The equities business, that now looks likely to be wound down, had been added only in recent years under the leadership of former chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin.
Our correspondent also points out that the move may not prevent future crises.
"To be clear, these decisions should not be seen as in any fundamental sense making RBS 'safer' or much less likely to pay big bonuses," he said.
Chancellor George Osborne announced the change in strategy at the bank in December 2011.
"Investment banking will continue to support RBS's corporate lending business but RBS will make further significant reductions in the investment bank, scaling back riskier activities that are heavy users of capital or funding," announced Mr Osborne to Parliament in December.
Mr Osborne's announcement came in the wake of a report into the bank by the Financial Services Authority in December 2011 which pointed to "errors of judgement and execution" by RBS management which led to its failure in 2008.
The bank is now 84% owned by the British government after taxpayers injected £45.5bn of new capital into RBS.
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