Despite beating Wall Street’s earnings expectations, State Street Corp. announced it will lay off employees to cut costs and increase automation services.

The Boston-based custody bank said Friday it will reduce its employee headcount by 1,500 jobs, or roughly 6 percent of its total workforce, including a 15 percent reduction of senior management positions.

“While we have made progress on our technology transformation, much remains to be done and we are not satisfied with our recent performance,” CEO Ronald O’Hanley said in a statement. “Structural costs are still too high and our automation efforts have not moved fast enough.”

The austerity measures come despite beating Wall Street’s expectations for Q4, bringing in $1.68 adjusted earnings per share vs. $1.67 expected by analysts. State Street’s net income increased 19 percent over last year to $398 million, according to the earnings report.

The belt-tightening moves are part of a new expense program as State Street “realizes the benefits of automation,” the company said in the statement, adding that they expect to save $350 million through the program in 2019.

O’Hanley, who took over as chief executive this month, said the company needs to reduce structural costs by 2 percent to 3 percent a year.

“The changes we are making will position us well to realize our three-year strategic vision to be the leading asset servicer, asset manager, and data insight provider to the owners and managers of the world’s capital,” O’Hanley said.