StanChart To Cut Over 7,000 Jobs, Boost AI To Replace 'Lower-Value Human Capital'
- Reference: 0183289333
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/05/19/1640224/stanchart-to-cut-over-7000-jobs-boost-ai-to-replace-lower-value-human-capital
- Source link:
> The cuts, alongside higher shareholder return targets announced in a strategy update, come as StanChart is at the tail-end of a decade-long effort to transform itself from a potential takeover target to a steadily profitable lender. Its London-listed shares, which have risen 65% in the last 12 months, fell 0.5% in early trading, as analysts said the new targets were at the conservative end of their expectations.
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> "In a world full of uncertainty, performance may prove more challenging further out," said Ed Firth, analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, citing how the bank has benefited in recent years from high interest rates and huge wealth flows. StanChart's move to streamline operations and rein in costs comes as more global firms slash jobs by deploying AI to improve efficiency. Japanese lender Mizuho in March unveiled up to 5,000 job cuts over a decade. And banks globally are scrambling to integrate frontier AI models and fend off rising cyber threats.
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> The most affected roles will be in the bank's back-office centres, including those in Chennai, Bengaluru, Kuala Lumpur and Warsaw, according to Winters. "Of course we're using AI along the way and AI will be a huge facilitator and enabler of that," he added, referring to its ongoing revamp to automate more of its core banking system. StanChart said it would deliver over 15% return on tangible equity in 2028, more than three percentage points higher than in 2025, and building to about 18% in 2030.
Meta also [2]announced plans to reassign 7,000 employees into AI-related initiatives, just ahead of layoffs expected to affect [3]roughly 8,000 workers .
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/stanchart-cut-more-than-7000-jobs-bank-steps-up-ai-adoption-2026-05-19/
[2] https://meta.slashdot.org/story/26/05/19/0027253/before-mass-layoffs-meta-reassigns-7000-workers-to-focus-on-ai
[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/18/179232/meta-layoffs-stress-harsh-ai-reality-inside-zuckerbergs-company
Human Capital (Score:5, Insightful)
No joke - our large company now uses a "Human Capital Management" system for things like pay. I can't believe they didn't understand how demeaning that is. More likely they just don't care.
Re: (Score:2)
What name do you propose instead?
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Anything besides "human capital." People management, workforce management... maybe even talent management would be better alternatives.
I know they don't want to acknowledge that you're an actual person, but this veneer is far too thin. Might as well take that last step and call us chattel.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't disagree with you that "human capital" is not a great label, but all the other terms you used have specific meanings in HR.
Talent management is about a combination of hiring, training, and retaining employees. People management is what typical middle-managers do, supporting employees in their daily activities and keeping a team operating. "Human capital management" includes both (and more - performance management, compensation, etc.). You could call it "human resources management" maybe, but HCM i
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> I can't believe
Someone failed to equip you with adequate cynicism. Upbringing issues.
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> No joke - our large company now uses a "Human Capital Management" system for things like pay. I can't believe they didn't understand how demeaning that is. More likely they just don't care.
I have another theory. They know precisely how demeaning it is and that's part of the reason they so cherish the term.
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Honestly, I think the more everyone in the system talks about it honestly (and that includes calling humans "human capital", which is what we are in the economic system) the more informed everyone in that system will be.
You can't get people fighting for government to ensure they have a livelihood (ie. becoming socialist) if no one understands that we're all just capital, and we're being replaced with a different kind of capital.
Re:"Lower-Value Human Capital" (Score:1)
DilbertBossGPT was set to 11 for that one
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This will be somewhat off-topic, but, I'm not letting that stop me. There was a game called Star Control II, which had a series of inter-planetary races. Once of which where called the "Druuge". Point being, they were pretty molevolant, and there was
a feature of one of their ships which litterally throw onboard crew members into a furnace as a means to generate energy for the ship.
I feel like we are moving more and more to that level of regard to each other. We allow such terrible treatment of each other so
If there was any doubt ... (Score:2)
> CEO Bill Winters saying the bank will replace some "lower-value human capital"
The management platitude, "Employees are our most valuable asset" is bullshit.
To be fair, Winters is implying they have some "higher-value human capital", but that doesn't sound much better.
Of course, stuck in the middle are the "meh-value human capital" - which sounds like a Far Side comic.
Wonder if his employees are labeled like this on their paychecks? "Position: Low-Value Human Capital"
"Low -value human capital" (Score:2)
Did they put that on the job ads when they hired these people ?
"Lower Value Human Capital" ... (Score:4, Insightful)
... Did they really phrase it that way? If so, that would be the most *sshole move I've seen by corporate douchebags in a long time. And if so I can't wait for the bots to replace those folks too.
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WSJ, Guardian, and Reuters are reporting that as a direct quote from Hong Kong media event, which makes sense because they have an [1]investor summit happening now [sc.com] And that summit has some other whoopers like "Our target is a skills-based operating model for an AI-first bank", "15% Reduction in human effort through engineering support bots", and "85k Staff trained and actively using MS CoPilot to realise value"
[1] https://www.sc.com/en/uploads/sites/66/content/docs/standard-chartered-may-2026-day-1-investor-event-presentation.pdf
Finally some honesty. (Score:2)
low value eh? Otherwise known as the modern desk job, formerly known as an IT job, formerly known as data entry, formerly known as typist...
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> low value eh? Otherwise known as the modern desk job, formerly known as an IT job, formerly known as data entry, formerly known as typist...
They still have those? I would have thought that everything was sent electronically by now, and nobody hand-entered anything except for bank tellers and other people who are dealing face-to-face with customers.
Then again, I remember how hard it was to do an international wire transfer a few months back, and how my bank faxed paperwork back and forth to their back office, so I guess that's plausible.
The unfortunate thing, though, is that for the most part, any use of AI to do that stuff is a mistake, becaus
Is Bill Winters' ... (Score:2)
... job on the line? Because that looks like a great "low human capital" type job to start with.
"Lower-value human capital" (Score:3)
Well there's some psychopathic phrasing right there...
odd narrative (Score:2)
I've seen hints of this sort of belief before, and I want to understand it, but it seems so incredibly sheltered and naive that I have trouble believing a large number of people actually hold it.
For starters, your implicit assumption seems to be that "MAGA" == downwardly mobile white folks. That's part of the coalition, yes - but the dominant caste is wealthy suburbanites - we used to call them "white flight" voters. Think car dealership owners and dentists. The kind of people who can [1]afford to fuck up boa [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkjAd5zhKDs
Dupes (Score:2)
Both the theme of the story and the AI brain fart. And I suppose the suckers who voted for the YOB, too, while I'm at it?