Robots to cut 200,000 US bank jobs in next decade

Bloomberg

Technological efficiencies will result in the biggest reduction in headcount across the US banking industry in its history, with an estimated 200,000 job cuts over the next decade, Wells Fargo & Co said in a report.
The $150 billion annually that the country’s finance firms are spending on tech — more than any other industry — will lead to lower costs, with employee compensation accounting for half of all bank expenses, said Mike Mayo, a senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC. Back office, bank branch, call centre and corporate employees are being cut by about a fifth to a third, with jobs related to tech, sales, advising and consulting less affected, the study said.
“It will be a dramatic change in contact centres, and these are both internal and external,” Michael Tang, a Deloitte partner who leads the consulting firm’s global financial-services innovation practice, said in an interview in the Wells Fargo report. “We’re already seeing signs of it with chatbots, and some people don’t even know that they’re chatting with an AI engine because they’re just answering questions.”
Wells Fargo’s Mayo joins bank executives, consulting firms and others in predicting huge cuts to the banking workforce amid the push towards automation.