Standard Chartered plans to reduce more than 15% of its job roles by 2030 as it steps up the use of artificial intelligence (AI) across its operations.
The reductions are expected to affect corporate and support functions, including risk management, regulatory compliance and human resources.
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At the end of last year, the bank had 52,271 employees in back-office roles. A cut of more than 15% would amount to over 7,800 positions.
Chief executive Bill Winters said the changes would be felt across the bank’s global network, including hubs in Bengaluru, Shenzhen and Warsaw.
“We do have job role reductions in favour of the machines, and that will accelerate as we go full-bore into AI,” Winters said at a press conference in Hong Kong.
“It is not cost-cutting, but it is replacing, in some cases, lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital that we are putting in.”
Winters said affected employees would be offered re-skilling support or packages to help them move into other opportunities.
The bank is also targeting a 20% increase in income per employee by 2028.
The workforce changes form part of a broader restructuring that includes a recent senior management reorganisation and new financial targets.
Standard Chartered said it wants to raise return on equity by three percentage points, to more than 15% in 2028 and around 18% in 2030. That compares with 11.9% in 2025.
It said growth would come from wealth and cross-border business, while automation would help deliver a 15% reduction in back-office headcount by 2030.
The bank expects its cost-to-income ratio to improve to 57% by 2028.
It also said it plans to operate within a CET1 ratio of 13-14% and a through-the-cycle loan loss ratio of 30-35 basis points.
In wealth management, Standard Chartered has brought forward its target for $200bn in net new money to 2028 from 2029.
It also expects affluent income, defined as revenue from clients with at least $25,000 in assets under management, to account for 75% of total wealth income by 2028. That is up from 70% at the end of last year.
The lender said fee income should make up more than half of total income in the coming years, compared with 47% currently.
Standard Chartered added that it would invest more heavily in its Wealth & Retail Banking business and in higher-returning areas such as the Financial Institutions client segment.
It also said it would continue to build its position in RMB, sustainable finance and Islamic finance.
