Ulster Bank's parent, Royal Bank of Scotland, is staring at the spectre of full nationalisation this week as it prepares to announce approximately £30bn (¤34bn) in losses for 2008.

The damage to the bank's balance sheet is expected to be so bad that the board is reportedly considering moving its reporting date up from Thursday.

The British government already owns 68% of the bank after two capital bailouts – one last November and one in January. Combined with massive price drops, diluted shareholders have been left with little value while the bank continues to flounder as emergency measures have had little immediate impact.

The 700 job cuts announced by Ulster Bank as part of its amalgamation with First Active are a sign of real trouble for the Irish operations.

While the headline figure amounts to 10% of the 7,000-strong Irish workforce, it represents nearly a third of the total announced RBS redundancies of 2,300. Ulster accounts for less than 7% of all RBS employees worldwide, yet is taking more than four times the pain per person.

This is probably to be expected now that the 'Royal' in the bank's name has become literal rather than notional. There is a global retrenchment to domestic markets.

What this means for chief executive Cormac McCarthy is yet unclear. He is generally well-regarded within the organisation and heads the bank's entire European operation.

But that is a shrinking corner, especially now that First Active – where McCarthy came from originally – is disappearing.

It is thought that RBS will have to pay an estimated £8bn asset protection fee to the UK government for being bailed out. If the medicine turns out to be worse than the cure, Ulster will become 100% royal.