British lender Royal Bank of Scotland said on Friday it was to cut 500 jobs in the Netherlands, roughly a quarter of its headcount there.

RBS, 82 percent owned by Britain after being rescued during the 2008 financial crisis, has already scaled back its Dutch operations.

In March, about 70 staff from RBS's merchant banking business in the Netherlands moved to Dutch lender ABN AMRO .

ABN AMRO, once a leading international player, was nationalised by the Dutch state during the 2008 crisis after the failure of a three-pronged hostile 70 billion euro (56 billion pounds) takeover by RBS, Fortis and Banco Santander .

RBS said earlier this year it would wind down parts of its equities operations as part of a broader cutback of its investment banking business.

A spokeswoman for RBS said on Friday the bank would cut 500 jobs, leaving 1,400 staff in the Netherlands by the end of 2013.

Dutch media reported the cuts would be in back office.

(Reporting by Sara Webb; Editing by Dan Lalor)