Scotiabank layoffs and AI

Scotiabank cut about 3,000 jobs in a restructuring that ran through late 2025, simplifying its Canadian Banking structure, shrinking its operations in Asia and regionalising work across its international business, and booked C$373 million of restructuring and severance charges, mainly for the job cuts, in its fourth quarter to 31 October; chief executive Scott Thomson gave the 3,000 in January 2026, and employees had reported layoffs from October.

The reason Scotiabank gave

"These amounts reflect actions taken by the Bank to simplify its organizational structure in Canadian Banking, restructure and right-size Asia operations in Global Banking and Markets and regionalize activities across its international footprint, in line with the Bank’s enterprise strategy." ... "Three thousand people ended up leaving the building."Scotiabank, in its fourth-quarter 2025 results release of 2 December 2025, and chief executive Scott Thomson at an event on 6 January 2026 (quoted by the Financial Post)

The release gives no AI reason for the cut. In December Thomson said the bank would remain focused on running as efficiently as possible, "including taking full advantage of emerging technologies", the Financial Post reported, and in September 2026 he called AI "a big opportunity for us, a transformational opportunity both from an effectiveness, and an efficiency perspective" and, according to CBC, said it had saved the bank roughly 24,000 days of work in about four and a half months. Neither statement gives AI as a reason these roles were cut; HRD Canada wrote that the bank's tie of its efficiency drive to emerging technologies aligns with broader expectations that automation and AI will reshape banking roles, and no report read said AI was a reason for this cut.

Source: Scotiabank (SEC filing): Fourth Quarter 2025 earnings release, Form 6-K exhibit 99.1, 2 December 2025. Checked Nov 6, 2026.