HSBC set to announce ‘brutal’ jobs cull in wealth division as it turns to AI

HSBC is cutting jobs in its UK wealth management division as it pushes to replace staff with artificial intelligence for its wealthiest customers.

The lender has not announced how many jobs will be lost or provided exact numbers of those currently working in the division.

But it is expected to affect around 70 per cent of the division’s financial advisers, with around half of its managers and specialists also set to be cut by the end of the month.

Hundreds of people are understood to be employed as wealth relationship managers at the bank across the UK.

The bank has started a consultation process affecting managers and specialist advisers, the Financial Times reported.

HSBC is cutting jobs in its UK wealth management arm

Speaking to the Financial Times, one person with knowledge of the matter described the job cuts as ‘deep, wide and brutal’, with almost entire teams being made redundant.

It comes just two years after the FTSE 100-listed bank embarked on a hiring drive, with plans to add hundreds of relationship managers to a 400-strong team at the time as it eyed a doubling of assets under management to £100billion by 2030.

At the end of last year, HSBC’s retail banking and wealth arm grew by £9billion to top £62billion.

It will exacerbate fears that firms are cutting their workforce to reduce costs while maximising profitability.

Chief executive Georges Elhedery, who took the helm in September 2024, has made AI central to his strategy to simplify HSBC.

In May 2026, Elhedery told investors in Hong Kong: ‘We all know generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs.’

Elhedery has also pledged to reduce the bank’s headcount by eliminating layers of management and axing duplicate senior roles.

The job cuts have emerged after the departure of José Carvalho, the bank’s head of wealth and personal banking in the UK, after three years in the job.

In March, an analysis by Bloomberg claimed that as many as 20,000 jobs at HSBC could be at risk globally as the business increases its use of AI. This would equate to about 10 per cent of its total workforce.

A spokesman for HSBC said: ‘HSBC UK is a long-established, leading UK wealth manager and premium banking provider.

‘We’re continuing to evolve to deliver more digitally-enabled products and journeys, to support our best-in-class wealth service and meet the changing needs of our customers.’

Standard Chartered is cutting nearly 8,000 jobs as it turns to AI to replace what its boss described as ‘lower-value human capital’.

In an update in May, that highlighted how the world of work was changing, the London-based bank said it would cut more than 15 per cent of its back-office roles by 2030.

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