Standard Chartered plans to eliminate more than 7,000 jobs over the next four years as it accelerates the use of artificial intelligence to replace what it calls “lower-value human capital.”
The London-headquartered lender announced the cuts on Tuesday as part of a strategy update aimed at making operations slimmer and boosting profitability. The bank said it would reduce 15% of its corporate function roles by 2030, which, based on Reuters calculations, amounts to more than 7,000 redundancies out of its more than 52,000 staff in those roles.
“It’s not cost-cutting. It’s replacing in some cases lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we’re putting in,” CEO Bill Winters told reporters.
The bank has a total global staff of nearly 82,000. Winters said the reduction will be driven by automation and adoption of artificial intelligence, with some staff given opportunities to retrain and move into new roles.
“So, the people that want to reskill, that want to carry on, we’re giving every opportunity to reposition,” he said.
The most affected positions are expected to be in back-office centres, including operations in Chennai, Bengaluru, Kuala Lumpur and Warsaw. Standard Chartered said the changes will help raise income per employee by around 20% by 2028.
Alongside the job cuts, the bank raised its profitability targets. It now expects a return on tangible equity of more than 15% in 2028, rising to about 18% in 2030. The lender also pulled forward its goal to attract $200 billion in net new money to 2028.
Standard Chartered becomes one of the first major global banks to attach a specific headcount-reduction number and deadline to AI deployment, marking a shift from using AI as a support tool to redesigning the workforce itself.
