London-headquartered Standard Chartered has come up with a list  of several hundred employees that it plans to eliminate, and a cutback program is set to get underway. The company right now employs about 85,000 people.

The statement from the bank highlights, “A small number of roles are being made redundant in line with our commitment to transforming the bank and ensuring its future competitiveness.” It further stated, “This is not the result of any impact from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Focused on markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the lender has faced pressure from investors to reduce costs to improve returns to boost its share price. The bank last month underwent a radical revamp that shrunk middle management, and invested billions of dollars in improving its technology.

Job cuts at Standard Chartered had been put on hold early on during the Covid-19 outbreak, with the bank saying it did not “intend to make any layoffs because of the pandemic.” Those losing their jobs will continue to be paid until the end of the year in addition to receiving a severance payment, according to the statement.

Standard Chartered’s decision to resume layoff comes as several major banks have retreated on initial promises to hold off making redundancies until the coronavirus crisis passed, as the cost and extent of the pandemic has become increasingly apparent to executives. Locations likely impacted include London, New, York and Singapore, people familiar with the plan said.

Last month, HSBC also informed its staff that it would resume a plan to reduce its workforce by 35,000, having originally said it would pause redundancies. Deutsche Bank ended a hiatus on staff dismissals as well in May.