TLDR
Westpac is cutting about 140 more roles this week, taking its job cuts this month to roughly 250. The bank says the restructure is not driven by AI. NAB and Barclays have also announced thousands of job cuts.
Another round of cuts
Westpac is cutting about 140 more roles this week, part of a broader restructure, a spokesperson said.[1] That takes the bank's job cuts this month to roughly 250, HR Leader reported.[2]
The first round came on 9 October. Westpac proposed restructuring its Risk, Institutional Banking and Finance teams, affecting 174 jobs: 102 redundancies and 72 moves to comparable roles.[3]
"Not AI-driven"
A Westpac spokesperson told Reuters the roughly 140 roles affected this week were part of a broader organisational restructure, not AI-driven job cuts.[1]
"The shape of our workforce changes according to the investment priorities of the Group," a Westpac spokesman said. "As customer habits change, and the skills and capabilities required in banking continue to evolve, so will our workforce."[2]
Westpac said affected staff would be supported through the process.[2]
A wave of bank job cuts
NAB said this week it would cut 2,500 jobs before the end of the 2026-27 financial year, 1,500 of them before the end of 2026.[2] NAB declined to say whether AI played a part, HR Leader reported.[2]
"NAB staff have suffered a year from hell after previous cuts," Finance Sector Union national assistant secretary Nicole McPherson said.[2]
In Britain, Barclays said it would cut about 5,000 jobs, around 5 per cent of its 93,000 staff.[4] Chief financial officer Anna Cross said about 60 per cent of the group's actions related to support functions, "including fewer developers, as AI makes our people more productive".[4]
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