StanChart joins AI push with plan to cut around 8 000 jobs

Standard Chartered Plc plans to eliminate close to 8 000 support roles over the next four years, one of the first global lenders to set out how it expects artificial intelligence to trim headcount.

The London-headquartered bank said it would cut corporate functions roles by more than 15% by 2030 and scale practical uses of AI to streamline processes, according to a statement on Tuesday. The bank had 52 271 of employees in back-office operations at the end of last year.

“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,” Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters said at a press briefing in Hong Kong, adding that affected staff would receive “good clear notice” ahead of time.

The concrete target puts Standard Chartered in the vanguard of finance firms seeking technological efficiencies. HSBC Holdings Plc is mulling deep job cuts over the coming years, while Wall Street firms are similarly pivoting. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. President and Chief Operating Officer John Waldron recently described his firm’s traditional operations as a “human assembly line” ripe for automation.

Even as such pledges proliferate, some are questioning whether companies are dressing up old-fashioned cost-cutting as technological futurism, or AI-washing. Experts on workplace automation say that AI tools have not gotten to the point where they are causing significant cutbacks in the labor market.

Standard Chartered, whose shares are up 65% in the past year, was little changed in London.

Bill Winters Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

The announcement came as Standard Chartered kicked off an investor and analyst meeting in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Winters and his management team are outlining the bank’s medium-term financial framework, growth initiatives, and strategic priorities.

Alongside the AI-driven restructuring and a recent reshuffle of senior management, the lender unveiled new return targets. Standard Chartered is aiming for a 3 percentage point improvement in its return on tangible equity, targeting more than 15% in 2028 and about 18% in 2030. The bank also expects to improve its cost-to-income ratio to 57% in 2028.

The job cuts would drive productivity improvements to raise income per employee by about 20% by 2028, according to the bank. Corporate function roles are support roles and include positions such as risk management and regulatory compliance, according to its website.

“We don’t have job losses, but we do have job role reductions in favor of the machines, and that will accelerate as we go forward into AI,” Winters said.

‘Fit for growth’

The bank is meeting with investors after earnings hit records and comfortably outpaced analyst estimates, bolstered by a record $18 billion in net new money flows to its wealth business. That helped cushion the blow from $190 million in “precautionary management overlays” set aside to navigate risks stemming from conflict in the Middle East.

The bank’s “Fit for Growth” restructuring program is wrapping up. The initiative, designed to streamline operations and deliver $1.5 billion in savings, comprised hundreds of individual projects with targets ranging from minor operational tweaks to multi-million dollar overhauls.

After surging almost 120% between early April 2025 and early February this year, the share rally suffered a setback, first from the surprise departure of Chief Financial Officer Diego De Giorgi, and later from the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East. The stock has largely recovered since then.

De Giorgi, a veteran of Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., was widely considered a top contender to eventually succeed Winter. The lender earlier this week named Manus Costello as its new CFO. Costello was hired in 2024 as global head of investor relations.

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