Standard Chartered boss apologises for ‘lower-value human capital’ comments amid job cuts

Key points

• The chief executive of Standard Chartered has apologised for referring to some of the almost 8,000 staff that are set to lose their jobs to artificial intelligence as “lower-value human capital”.
• Bill Winters offered the apology after a backlash over comments he made earlier this week as the London-headquartered lender became one of the first major global banks to lay out plans to cut about 7,800 back-office roles, primarily in response to AI.
• “It’s not cost-cutting,” he said.
• “It’s replacing in some cases lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we’re putting in.” Winters posted an apology on LinkedIn on Friday, having received a string of negative comments after a previous post made hours earlier attempting to explain the broader context.
• “I said that lower-value roles are more vulnerable to automation, and that we have a responsibility to help colleagues move into higher-value roles,” he said...