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* 2013 loss 8.2 billion pounds
* Total loss since 2008 bailout 46 billion pounds
* Warns Scottish independence could hit credit rating
* Shares biggest fallers among European bank shares
By Matt Scuffham and Steve Slater
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland sought to shake off its reputation as Britain's pariah bank onThursday with plans to cut more costs and reposition itself as aUK-focused retail and commercial lender.
New chief executive Ross McEwan is under pressure to restoreRBS's standing with its political masters and the general publicafter a year of fines, customer complaints and technologyproblems.
The bank, which is 81-percent owned by the government, onThursday posted an 8.2 billion pound ($13.64 billion) pretaxloss for 2013 due to restructuring costs and misconduct charges.
That brings the total RBS has lost since it was bailed outin 2008 to 46 billion pounds ($76.53 billion)- just above theamount taxpayers paid for its rescue during the financialcrisis.
"We are the least trusted company in the least trustedsector of the economy. That must change," McEwan told anaudience of employees and customers at The Trampery, a newbusiness hub funded by RBS in the east of London.
Analysts warned it would take time for investors to see thebenefit of the restructuring and there were high risks to theplan. RBS stock was the top faller among European banking shares, down 8 percent.
"We are sceptical of there being a lot of low-hanging fruitin the cost-save department given 7 billion pounds inrestructuring charges taken under previous management," JasonNapier, analyst at Deutsche Bank, who has a "sell" rating on theshares.
McEwan said the bank would need to think about theimplications for its Edinburgh headquarters if Scotland voted infavour of independence in September.
Insurer Standard Life said earlier on Thursday itcould move part of its business out of Scotland if it votes toleave the United Kingdom.
RBS said independence would likely hit its credit ratings, amove that would typically increase funding costs.
"This is a huge issue for Scotland and we are neutral andwon't do anything to raise the temperature of that vote," McEwansaid.
BONUS CONTROVERSY
RBS has become, as one parliamentarian put it this week,"the unacceptable face of British banking". While taxpayers siton a paper loss of around 16 billion pounds, it has continued topay bumper bonuses.
This year, RBS is paying out 576 million pounds in staffbonuses for 2013, down 15 percent on the year before. Britain'sdeputy prime minister Nick Clegg later said on UK television,that a lossmaking bank, "shouldn't be dishing out ever largerbonuses."
McEwan, who has waived his bonus for last year, defendedthe payouts, which had been agreed with UK FinancialInvestments, the agency that manages the government stake.
"We need to be pragmatic. I need to pay these people fairlyin the market place to do the job," he said.
UK FOCUS
RBS's global ambitions nearly felled the bank and it hasmade huge progress in slashing 1 trillion pounds off what wasonce the biggest balance sheet in the world.
McEwan wants to simplify the bank further by cutting itsdivisions from seven to three, reducing investment banking andshrinking its hundreds of committees.
He said the decision to focus the bank around three coreareas - retail, commercial and corporate - and to concentrate 80percent of the bank's assets in the UK, from 60 percent now wasnot politically motivated.
"This is our plan. We own it," he said.
The government pushed out McEwan's predecessor, StephenHester, last year partly because of his continuing commitment tothe bank's large investment banking franchise.
Britain's finance ministry said McEwan's plan delivered thegovernment's vision for a bank focused on lending to Britishbusinesses and families.
RBS is planning to cut costs by 5.3 billion pounds, or 40percent, over the next three to four years, with 3.1 billion ofthat coming from the sale of businesses such as its U.S. retailfranchise Citizens and the rest from cutting overheads.
In the meantime, RBS warned that there would be "elevated"restructuring costs over the next two years to get the bank'scustomer service up to scratch and its costs down.
Unlike Lloyds, which also received a state bailoutand has been selling its government-owned shares, RBS is yearsaway from privatisation.
"We need to recognise that we are not yet a strong enoughbank that can be privatised at a profit for the taxpayer in theimmediate future," McEwan said.
"There is no point avoiding this inconvenient truth."
