The European banking sector faces a tricky lesson in efficiency. According to a brand new evaluation from Morgan Stanley reported According to the Financial Times, greater than 200,000 European banking jobs could disappear by 2030 as lenders embrace AI and shut physical branches. That's around 10% of the workforce of 35 major banks.
The bloodshed will hit hardest in back-office operations, risk management and compliance, the unassuming bowels of banking where algorithms are supposedly capable of breach spreadsheets faster and more effectively than humans. According to the Morgan Stanley report, banks are drooling over projected 30% efficiency gains.
The workforce cuts will not be limited to Europe. Goldman Sachs had warned U.S. employees in October of job cuts and a hiring freeze through the tip of 2025 as a part of an AI push called “OneGS 3.0” that targets all the things from customer onboarding to regulatory reporting.
Some institutions are already swinging the axe. Dutch lender ABN Amro plans to chop a fifth of its staff by 2028, while the CEO of Société Générale has declared: “Nothing is sacred.” Still, some European banking leaders are urging caution: A JPMorgan Chase executive told the Financial Times that the industry may very well be hit again by crisis if junior bankers never learn the ropes.
