Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are doing their best to ruin Christmas for UK front-line bank staff, reports Finextra. Just days after Lloyds announced plans to close another 49 branches with the loss of 99 jobs, RBS said it would shut 259 branches and lay off 680 staff. RBS says that the number of customers using branches has fallen by 40 per cent over the past three years, while mobile transactions have increased by 73 per cent. The bank has told 1000 staff that their jobs are at risk but that it expects many to be redeployed resulting in a total job loss figure of 680. Previous RBS branch closure programmes have resulted in over 500 branches being lost. The latest RBS closures will take place in around six months. Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) have the potential to become viable alternatives to cash and cards and online transfers, according to new research from the Bank of Canada. Finextra reports that the BoC says an official digital currency could offer an alternative not only to bank notes, but to cheques, debit and credit cards and online transfers - and would be less costly for consumers and cheaper than cash and cards for merchants because the central bank would not charge any transaction fee. A CBDC could also help with financial stability, although the paper notes that a shift from bank deposits to CBDC could also have an impact on bank funding and credit provision, which could hurt financial stability. New Zealand's Reserve Bank has also been studying the potential benefits of an official digital currency. Swiss banks have begun reporting suspicious account activity by some of their Saudi Arabian clients to the Swiss Money Laundering Reporting Office, reports the FT. It says sources have told them that lawyers acting for the banks expect several dozen submissions to be made in total, as the banks become increasing nervous about being found in breach of rules governing money laundering and corruption. It follows the arrest last month of more than 200 people, including some of Saudi Arabia's richest businessmen and princes, who were detained at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh after an anti-graft operation launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. So far the account reports have not led to any action by Swiss authorities, such as searches or freezing accounts, the FT says. The UK's accounting watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council, has more than tripled the size of its enforcement team over the past five years, reports the FT. The regulator has come under pressure to demonstrate a more rigorous approach to policing the audit market following its controversial decision to clear KPMG of misconduct in its 2008 audit of failed lender HBOS. Mastercard is planning to hire 473 new tech experts over the next few years, to work out of its New York tech hub, reports Finextra. The payments firm is to move to a new 212,000 square-foot site in New