Charter One,  a Royal Bank of Scotland Group unit that’s the 12th biggest deposit gatherer in the Chicago area, said it has laid off a “handful” of Illinois employees after a review of its commercial real estate lending division.

“Charter One is committed to commercial real estate  in this market,” said Stacey Sather, a spokeswoman for Charter One in Chicago.  But “the industry has been under stress and will likely to continue to be.”

Charter One, which has 113 Chicago-area branches and deposit market share of 2 percent, is “reallocating resources  to other parts of the business where  there is high-growth opportunity,” she said.