The Relationship Manager Is Being Managed Out

Morning, droogs. The relationship manager has met the spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet would like a word.

The Financial Times reports that HSBC is consulting on cuts to about half of management and specialist roles in its UK wealth business, while the number of financial advisers could fall by around 70%. Reuters relayed the FT report on October 7 and said it had not independently verified it. The proposed changes remain under consultation.^[1][2]

HSBC told the FT it was moving toward more digitally enabled products and customer journeys. Corporate English: everybody evolves, somebody loses the chair.^[1]

HSBC’s June research makes for awkward background reading. In its global survey of 9,993 affluent and high-net-worth investors, 62% said their last investment idea came from financial professionals or institutions, compared with 32% citing AI. Among high-net-worth respondents, the figure for professionals and institutions was 70%. The bank described its approach as “adviser-enabled AI.”^[3]

Those results describe global investor preferences. They do not establish how the proposed UK cuts would affect service, or how much of the reported staffing reduction would be attributable to AI.^[1][3]

Here is the bit worth watching: if the cuts proceed, will clients get quicker access to better-prepared advisers, or a longer queue in front of a very confident machine? The reported staffing percentages cannot answer that.

Horrorshow. The software can produce another reassuring paragraph. Someone still has to answer the phone.