REUTERS: Standard Chartered’s new Chief Executive Bill Winters plans to cut up to a quarter of the bank’s most senior staff to reduce costs, according to a memo sent to staff, a move likely to result in the loss of around 1,000 top jobs.

Winters said he planned to reduce the number of staff who are graded in bands 1-4 by a quarter, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Those bands cover board members to senior bankers at managing director level, and include about 4,000 staff in total.

Winters, who took over as CEO in June, said the bank would also make disposals and cut clients as part of his strategic review. The businesses considered for sale would be in areas where the bank was “not differentiated” or “not critical to a core strength,” Winters said in the memo.

Winters outlined plans for turning around the bank and said it needed to tighten its belt through targeted reductions and not across-the-board cuts.

“Our situation requires decisive and immediate action. Each member of the management team has a mission to drive through improvements in our returns and part of this will be further streamlining of our organisation, eliminating management layers and duplication of roles.”

Winters is expected to outline his plans to investors and staff in November or December.

“We have a clear sense of our direction of travel and the key areas of focus - superior execution, targeted investments, divestment where we are not advantaged and innovation in our product and process design,” he said.