HSBC is putting a raft of roles in its UK wealth division on the chopping block following a push to slash costs with artificial intelligence.  

Europe’s biggest lender is consulting on changes to its wealth management operations that would lead to a shake-up for hundreds of relationship managers and financial advisers across the UK.

The move, first reported by the FT, could see the bank halve the amount of management and specialist roles it has and cut as much as 70 per cent of its financial advisers as part of the cuts.

HSBC does not disclose the total number of staff in its wealth operations. Its UK business has £134bn of wealth balances, which are roughly split equally across its private banking and premier banking businesses. Across the UK, it is estimated to employ up to 35,000 people.

Georges Elhedery, the bank’s chief, had previously urged the bank’s staff to avoid “fighting” its AI ambitions.

Staff must not be “disenfranchised, not anxious, overwhelmed, and resisting the change,” he told those attending an investor day event in May.

“We all know ​generative AI will destroy certain jobs and will create new jobs,” Elhedery said.

“But my initial mission ​is: I need 200,000 colleagues with us on this journey – however many will be ⁠left at the end of the journey isn’t the problem.”

Banks rush to AI for efficiency gains

HSBC is ranked first in the UK and 11th globally on the Evident AI index, which is used as a global benchmark to track banks’ AI capabilities.

Earlier this year, the bank’s peer Standard Chartered revealed plans to slash almost 8,000 back-office roles, stoking more fears of the consequences of AI on the financial services industry.

The lender’s boss, Bill Winters – one of the longest-serving FTSE 100 chiefs – pushed back against claims of “cost-cutting” and instead said it was “replacing, in some cases, lower-value human capital with the financial capital and investment capital we’re putting in”.

Winters later apologised for the comments in a lengthy LinkedIn post.

HSBC revealed a tie-up with Google Cloud earlier this year, where it aims to use AI to scout priority projects that could bank the firm $100m in “efficiency gains”.

The bank said in June the initial roll-out would focus on “hyper-personalised” wealth management, stronger financial crime risk management and AI tools to “enhance” client services.

City AM revealed in April that Lloyds had entered a deal with Google to build AI agents. Britain’s biggest mortgage lender sealed an agreement to use the tech giant’s suite of computing services to create a new internal platform for agents that will allow teams across its group to build their own tools and publish them to a central marketplace where other divisions can find and deploy them.

A spokesperson 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.”