Citigroup’s investment bank has suggested that it will shed up to half of its 20,000 technology and operations staff in the next five years, thanks to increasing automation.

The forecast was made by Jamie Forese, President of Citi and chief executive of the bank’s institutional clients group in an interview to Financial Times, to mark the 10th anniversary of the financial crisis.

Forese stated that the operational positions, which make up almost two-fifths of investment bank employees at Citi, were “most fertile for machine processing”.

“We’ve got 20,000 operational roles. Over the next five years could you make it 10,000?” he added.

As per FT research, if replicated across the industry, the potential job losses would represent a steeper rate of cuts than in 2007-2017, when about 60,000 jobs were cut from eight of the world’s top 10 investment banks. 

Forese however added that the bank would hire in other areas such as sales and research. 

“What people are doing, the type of work being done by the human rather than the machine will change,” he added. 

Last month, Germany's largest lender Deutsche Bank had stated that it will axe over 7,000 jobs globally and significantly scale back its investment banking activities as it seeks to stem years of losses.

Automation is going to change the Indian work scenario significantly as well. A recent report by Willis Towers Watson also highlights that Indian companies in India can expect the application of automation in the workplace to rise from the current 14 percent to 27 percent in three years.