By Joe Wallace

"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."

-Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters during a media briefing in Hong Kong.

The emerging market-focused bank outlined plans today to reduce the number of people working in "corporate functions" by more than 15% by 2030-putting thousands of jobs on the cutting block.

The language doesn't match the breakdown of different types of employment in the annual report. Still, given it employed 52,000 or so people in "support services" as of 2025, the cuts would amount to almost 8,000 people. Some of the reduction could come from not replacing employees when they leave or change jobs.

In the firing line are roles including human resources and risk and compliance, Winters said.

AI companies have targeted the banking industry, pitching their technology as capable of checking credit documents, assembling pitches, spotting red flags in transactions and monitoring sanctions on counterparties among other tasks.

After a long period in the doldrums, StanChart's stock price has almost tripled since the start of 2024. Its focus is on wealth management and handling cross-border business in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 19, 2026 07:18 ET (11:18 GMT)

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