Standard Chartered plans to cut about 7,800 back-office roles by 2030 as the London-based bank accelerates the use of artificial intelligence and automation to improve profitability and reduce reliance on what chief executive Bill Winters called “lower-value human capital”.

The FTSE 100 lender said it would reduce about 15 per cent of corporate function positions, including jobs in compliance and human resources, as part of a strategy aimed at increasing return on tangible equity to more than 15 per cent by 2028 and about 18 per cent by 2030. Reuters calculated that the reductions would affect more than 7,000 roles from the bank’s support services workforce of more than 52,000 employees.

Winters told reporters that the cuts were being driven by investment in technology rather than a conventional cost-saving exercise. “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,” he said. He added: “We don’t have job losses, but we do have job role reductions in favour of the machines.”

The bank said it would expand the use of automation, advanced analytics and AI to “streamline processes, improve decision-making and enhance both client service and internal efficiency”. Winters said affected roles were likely to be concentrated in back-office centres in Bengaluru, Chennai, Kuala Lumpur and Warsaw, although some employees would be offered retraining and redeployment opportunities.

The Financial Times reported that Standard Chartered had already achieved its “fit for growth” programme target of $1.5 billion in annualised cost savings a year earlier than planned. The bank said it aimed to raise income per employee by a fifth by 2028 and increase its dividend payout ratio to 30 per cent.

The announcement comes as banks and technology groups increase the deployment of AI tools to automate administrative and support functions. Reuters reported that Japanese lender Mizuho had outlined plans for up to 5,000 job cuts over the next decade, while DBS previously warned that about 4,000 temporary and contract roles could disappear because of AI adoption.

Standard Chartered, which focuses on Asia, Africa and the Middle East, employed nearly 82,000 people globally at the end of last year. The bank reported record first-quarter pre-tax profits of $2.5 billion in April, up 17 per cent year on year, while its shares have risen about two-thirds over the past 12 months, valuing the lender at roughly £42 billion.

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