Standard Chartered to cut over 7,000 corporate roles to accelerate AI adoption

Standard Chartered announced on Tuesday that it plans to reduce its corporate function jobs by 15% by 2030. According to Reuters calculations, this means more than 7,000 positions will be eliminated, primarily from its approximately 52,000 support function employees.

This is the latest case of large banks transforming AI automation into profit targets. Standard Chartered currently has nearly 82,000 global employees, with a significant number of positions concentrated in back-office, support, and corporate functions, which are the areas most affected by automation first.

Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters told reporters that the reduction in jobs will be driven by the adoption of automation and artificial intelligence, with some employees shifting to retraining. He emphasized:

“This is not about cost-cutting, but in certain cases, substituting lower-value human capital with the financial and investment capital we invest.”

Standard Chartered subsequently raised its profit target, aiming for a tangible equity return on equity (RoTE) of over 15% by 2028 and about 18% by 2030, an increase of more than 3 percentage points from the 2025 level; Standard Chartered also hopes to increase revenue per employee by more than 20% by 2028.

The division lies in the fact that AI can improve efficiency, but it cannot eliminate the geopolitical and credit risks faced by Standard Chartered in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Middle East markets; the bank has already set aside $190 million in precautionary provisions related to conflicts in the Middle East for the first quarter. Standard Chartered's Hong Kong-listed shares rose by 2.5% in the morning, while the Hang Seng Index remained largely unchanged.