Sumitomo Mitsui to automate work of 1,500 people

November 13, 2017

Tokyo- Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Monday that it will cut the equivalent of the work done by 1,500 employees, by automating routine work and other tasks.

The major Japanese megabank group hopes to achieve the reduction, which equals over three million hours of work, by the end of fiscal 2019.

The goal is part of the company's aim to cut the work of 4,000 employees in its medium-term management plan through fiscal 2019, which ends in March 2020.

As part of efforts to achieve the goal, Sumitomo Mitsui is working on automating tasks using artificial intelligence and other technology, in fields such as collecting information on clients, creating briefing papers on asset management for customers and watching out for money laundering.

The company estimates that it will be able to cut one million hours of work in fiscal 2017. Jiji Press