Close Brothers Group plc

Close Brothers has revealed plans to strip out more than another £60 million in annual costs as it continues ramping up the use of artificial intelligence. The banking group said it cut annual costs by around £36 million in the year to July 31, far more than its £25 million initial target, after announcing plans in March to cut nearly a quarter of its 2,600-strong workforce and trim its office network. It now expects to deliver more than £60 million of annual savings in the 2026-27 year, with efforts to outsource and offshore work abroad and cut back its office network and business functions paying off, and said it is well into planning the next stage of restructuring, focused on bringing support functions under one central division and accelerating the rollout of AI. The group stressed it has no plans to cut more jobs on top of the 600 already announced despite nearly doubling annual cost cutting. It reported pre-tax operating losses of £60.3 million for the year to July 31, knocked by another £164.7 million in provisions for the car finance redress scheme, taking its total to about £320 million, though losses halved from the £122.4 million pre-tax loss reported in 2024-25. Close Brothers said it would not pay a final dividend for 2026 given the continued uncertainty regarding the outcome of the legal challenges to the FCA's motor finance consumer redress scheme and any potential financial impact.