Standard Chartered will cut corporate-function roles by more than 15% by 2030, and its chief executive says the plan is enabled by AI

In the employer's own words: set out by the company in a press release and transcripts at its investor event. This cut has not happened yet and is not counted in the verified job-loss totals. At its investor event on 19 May 2026, Standard Chartered set out a target to raise income per employee by about 20% by 2028, "aided by a reduction in corporate functions roles of >15 per cent by 2030". The bank's chief executive, Bill Winters, said of the productivity plan: "All of this is going to be enabled by AI." The bank's transformation chief said it intends to decouple volume growth in its businesses from headcount growth, and that "our back office or our corporate functions will be 15% lesser", which "means people's jobs are going to be impacted". The bank did not publish a headcount; press estimates of about 7,800 are not the bank's own number. The target runs to 2030, so the roles have not gone yet. The bank also says it will retrain and redeploy staff and fill more than half of new jobs internally.