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Standard Chartered Group CEO Bill Winters issued a memo to employees Wednesday walking back a comment he made the previous day, in which he described workers being replaced by artificial intelligence as "lower-value human capital."
The remark came Tuesday at an investor event in Hong Kong, where Winters announced plans to reduce corporate function roles by more than 15% by 2030 — a figure that amounts to roughly 8,000 positions, according to The Wall Street Journal. The bank had roughly 81,000 employees at the end of 2025 and a further 17,000 contract workers, according to The Wall Street Journal. Roles in human resources, risk, and compliance are among those affected.
"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," Winters told reporters ahead of the presentation.
Former Singapore President Halimah Yacob was among those who publicly rebuked Winters, writing on Facebook $META -0.39% that it was "disturbing to read workers described as 'lower-value human capital,'" according to Bloomberg. Singapore and Hong Kong serve as the primary hubs for Standard Chartered's global operations, and the bank generates the bulk of its profits in Asia.
