The parent company of Ulster Bank is drawing up plans to pull out of dozens of overseas markets.
It is understood that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is in talks with a number of national banking regulators about withdrawing from many of the 38 countries in which it retains a presence.
Although RBS has offloaded retail operations in a number of countries since its €55.3 billion (stg£45.5) taxpayer bail-out in 2008, it continues to do business in markets as geographically diverse as Australia, China, Italy, Kazakhstan, Romania, South Africa and the US.
It is thought that the plans will not be completed in time to be outlined in detail next Thursday, when Ross McEwan, RBS's new chief executive, will confirm his strategy for the bank.
"There are still discussions ongoing and things are not yet finalised" a source said.
Mr. McEwan and the British Chancellor, George Osborne, have agreed that RBS should be solely-focused on UK consumers and business customers, while aiding the latter's ability to trade in key international markets.
RBS refused to comment on which overseas operations would be closed or sold, but another source said he would be "surprised if the bank has a presence in more than 15 [of the 38] once the new strategy is fully implemented".
It is unlikely that RBS would withdraw from some key countries such as China or the US, and the insider said that the bank continued to be profitable in many of the 38 existing markets.
A widely-speculated sale of its RBS Securities arm in the US would not be announced as part of next week's review, he added.
People close to the RBS review dismissed newspaper reports that between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs would disappear from the existing workforce of about 120,000, saying that the final tally would almost certainly be significantly higher over a three-to-five year period.
That may be partly offset by the recruitment of new staff if Mr. McEwan's strategy proves to be successful and it wins a bigger share in its core markets.
The reductions will include 18,500 staff employed by Citizens, the US retail bank which RBS has already announced that it will offload through a stock market listing. 4,500 jobs will also be transferred as part of the sale of more than 300 branches to a consortium.
Ulster Bank announced last month that it planned to cut 110 jobs in Dublin and Belfast.
RBS has previously said it would close between 30 and 40 branches in the Republic and Northern Ireland by the end of 2014.
