The bank joins the likes of HSBC and Deutsche Bank in restarting a redundancy programme that had previously been paused due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

According to a Bloomberg report, StanChar has drafted a list of several hundred employees from its 85,000 strong workforce that it plans to let go. The cuts are likely to take place in London, New York and Singapore, reports Bloomberg.

“A small number of roles are being made redundant in line with our commitment to transforming the bank and ensuring its future competitiveness," stated the bank. Employees will be paid until the end of the year and will also receive a severance package, according to the statement. 

The report follows the posting of the bank's H1 results in which pre-tax profits fell to $1.63bn compared to $2.41bn in the first half of 2019. 

"Low interest rates and depressed oil prices continue to be headwinds and we expect new waves of Covid-19 related challenge in the coming quarters but I am confident that our resilience and client franchise will see us through," group chief executive Bill Winters said in a statement.

The bank has been under pressure to cut its expenses and under Winters' leadership, it has looked to shrink its middle office management headcount and invest more heavily in technology improvements and greater use of digital services.

It had set a target of reducing expenses to less than $10bn in 2020 and it stated that "given the more challenging external environment we have started to implement new sustainable efficiency initiatives with the intent to stay below $10bn in 2021 as well".

The bank has also been affected by unrest in Hong Kong which is one of its largest markets.

Other international banks have also made a number of job cuts in recent weeks after initially holding out any such action amid the pandemic. In June HSBC resumed plans to reduce its workforce by 35,000 and in May, Deutsche Bank ended its moratorium on redundancies.