HSBC Holdings Plc is weighing deep job cuts over the coming years as Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery bets on AI to shrink its middle and back offices, one of the first signs of how the technology could reshape Wall Street workforces.
Non-client facing roles in global service centers are among those expected to be most impacted although the assessment is at an early stage, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing preliminary deliberations. The changes could ultimately impact around 20,000 roles — or about 10% of its total workforce, one of the people said.
The deliberations started before the recent war in the Middle East broke out and no final decision has been made, some of the people said.
A spokesperson for HSBC declined to comment. The bank's shares slid 2% as of 8:36 a.m. in London.
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Elhedery has carried out a radical restructuring of the lender since taking the helm in 2024. He's already cut thousands of jobs, while selling some businesses and merging or closing others. The bank had around 210,000 employees at the end of 2025.
The assessment includes roles where HSBC won't replace staff, some of the people said, and no final decision has been made. Some of the headcount reduction may also come through business sales or exits, according to one of the people.
Global banks could eliminate as many as 200,000 positions in the next three to five years as AI encroaches on tasks currently carried out by humans, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report last year. Chief information and technology officers surveyed by BI indicated that on average they expect a net 3% reduction in workforce, according to the report.
The HSBC cuts would take place as part of a medium-term plan spanning three to five years, one of the people familiar said. The potential cuts may lower annualized group expenses by 5% to 6%, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Elhedery has also attempted to drive a cultural change as the bank grapples with competition from local and international rivals. It's moving toward a more Wall Street-style compensation model, in which top performers share a larger part of the bonus pool, while underperformers are pushed to look for opportunities outside of the company.
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The chief executive has also doubled down on his predecessor's Asia-pivot strategy by taking private its Hong Kong subsidiary Hang Seng Bank Ltd., a major bet on growth in the Asian financial hub.
HSBC said recently it expects to achieve a $1.5 billion cost-savings target in the first half of the year — six months ahead of schedule.
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference on Wednesday, HSBC's chief financial officer, Pam Kaur, said that the bank saw opportunities to use AI both to cut costs and increase employee productivity. Kaur said that company could incorporate AI into areas such as customer service centers, as well as know-your-customer teams and transaction monitoring to make its operations more cost efficient.
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