Georges Elhedery-led HSBC is reportedly planning sweeping job cuts across its UK wealth management business, including a sharp reduction in financial advisers and specialist staff, as part of a broader push to integrate AI.
As per the inputs received by the Financial Times, the British banking giant plans to cut about half of management and specialist roles in the business, while reductions among financial advisers could reach around 70%.
HSBC does not disclose the number of employees in its UK wealth business, though it is thought to have hundreds of relationship managers across the country, according to the FT.
The bank is currently in a consultation period on the proposed changes, the report said, adding that affected employees are expected to leave by the end of October.
The news comes four months after Elhedery’s May statement at the HSBC investor day event, during which he said that staff needed to embrace AI-driven change rather than resist it and that “generative AI will destroy certain jobs.”
Elhedery has made AI a central part of his strategy since taking over in 2024, deploying the technology across multiple functions and businesses to simplify operations and personalise content for customers.
HSBC is also in the process of winding down its transactions services business in Germany, resulting in more than 300 job reductions.
By 2028, HSBC will phase out the positions in a “socially responsible” manner. Among the affected positions, approximately 300 jobs will remain at HSBC Transaction Services GmbH and 20 at HSBC Service Company Germany GmbH.
The transactions services division, which offers securities processing, administration, and custody, has become part of Elhedery’s radical restructuring, which focuses on cost-cutting, AI deployment, and a pivot to Asia.
In 2025, HSBC Germany completed the sale of its private banking business to BNP Paribas.
Along with these changes, Pam Kaur, HSBC’s first Chief Financial Officer (CFO), will also be leaving the bank.
The latter is eyeing a step down in 2027, marking another high-profile executive departure at the Asia-focused lender.
Kaur, the British lender’s first female finance chief in its over 160-year history, was often regarded as the top aide to Elhedery.
However, in addition to its radical restructuring, HSBC is also experiencing high-profile executive departures.
In August, HSBC’s global chief executive for the insurance business, Edward Moncreiffe, left the bank after two decades at the banking group.
Among other high-profile exits, we have former head of banking for Europe and the Americas Gerry Keefe, who resigned in April, and HSBC’s cash equities trading heads, James Grafton and Steve Jobber, who left in February.
The bank’s former US banking chief, Lisa McGeough, departed in September 2025.