With the bank’s overweight investment in financial technology and the in-depth promotion of digital transformation, there have also been dynamic adjustments in bank employees. On April 10, according to the statistics of the reporter of Beijing business daily, among the 24 A-share listed banks that have disclosed the annual report of 2021, the number of employees of 11 banks has been reduced compared with the previous year, and the number of employees of the remaining 13 banks is increasing. From the perspective of post distribution, most of the banks with reduced number of employees have reduced the number of counter personnel and business personnel, while among the banks with increased total number of employees, the increased posts are mostly concentrated in the fields of information technology and so on. Behind the dynamic adjustment of the number of employees and structure, it reflects the demand for the sweeping wave of banking technology and strengthening the layout of online financial business.
listed bank employee structure “change”
Among the banks that have disclosed the annual report of 2021, nearly 46% of the bank’s employees have “slimmed down”. According to the statistics of Beijing Business Daily on April 10, among the 24 A-share listed banks that have disclosed their annual reports, the total number of employees of 11 banks has decreased compared with the same period last year.
Specifically, among the six major state-owned banks, only China Construction Bank Corporation(601939) one has an increase in the number of employees, and the rest have been reduced compared with the previous year. At the end of 2021, “cosmic travel” Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited(601398) had 434089 employees, a decrease of 5698 over the same period of last year Agricultural Bank Of China Limited(601288) number also decreased. By the end of 2021, the total number of employees in the bank had decreased by 3826 to 455174, a decrease of 0.83% Bank Of China Limited(601988) , Postal Savings Bank Of China Co.Ltd(601658) , Bank Of Communications Co.Ltd(601328) employees were 306322, 193946 and 90238 respectively, a decrease of 2762, 581 and 478 respectively compared with the end of 2020.
The remaining six banks with a decrease in the total number of employees include Chongqing rural commercial bank, China Everbright Bank Company Limited Co.Ltd(601818) , Ruifeng rural commercial bank, Bank Of Ningbo Co.Ltd(002142) , Jiangyin rural commercial bank and Changshu rural commercial bank, with a decrease of 183, 141, 122, 114, 28 and 15 respectively compared with the end of the previous year.
“At present, with the rapid development of financial technology, a large number of financial formats are changing. Especially under the trend of online, the business volume of bank counter employees is decreasing. Online also makes the business efficiency of financial institutions higher. Therefore, the number of employees is decreasing.” Pan Helin, CO director and researcher of digital economy and financial innovation research center of International United Business School of Zhejiang University, believes that the increase in the number of China Construction Bank Corporation(601939) employees is mainly for remote banks and smart banks, and the bank’s Bank transformation plan needs more talents.
From the perspective of post distribution, the number of some counter personnel and business personnel has been reduced. For example, by the end of 2021, Agricultural Bank Of China Limited(601288) counter staff had decreased by 8693, and the number of skilled personnel and financial personnel had decreased by 1916 and 1416 respectively Bank Of Ningbo Co.Ltd(002142) mainly reduced the number of personal banking personnel, with a total reduction of 906 by the end of 2021. It is worth mentioning that although the overall number of employees of the two banks has decreased, the number of personnel in some positions has increased, Agricultural Bank Of China Limited(601288) scientific and technological personnel and marketing personnel have increased by 1003 and 6117 respectively in one year, and Bank Of Ningbo Co.Ltd(002142) information technology personnel have increased by 294.
According to Zhou Maohua, the analyst of China Everbright Bank Company Limited Co.Ltd(601818) financial market, in recent years, the change characteristics of personnel in various banks are relatively consistent, mainly due to the decrease of counter personnel and the increase of personnel in information, research, marketing and other positions, which is mainly due to the layout of banks in line with the market demand. On the one hand, financial digitization is developing rapidly, some financial businesses are online rapidly, and the market competition is also fierce, Banks have increased investment in information technology; On the other hand, the technology upgrading, transformation and optimization of some physical outlets, so as to reduce counter Posts accordingly. The bank hopes to optimize the talent team according to the changes of market environment, reduce costs and improve business efficiency.
anchor fintech, digital transformation
From the perspective of 13 banks with expanded total employees, the number of China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) employees increased the fastest. By the end of 2021, the number of employees in the bank had increased from 12802 to 103669 Industrial Bank Co.Ltd(601166) , Ping An Bank Co.Ltd(000001) employees also increased by more than 2000, reaching 62537 and 40651 respectively; By the end of 2021, China Construction Bank Corporation(601939) , China Zheshang Bank Co.Ltd(601916) , China Minsheng Banking Corp.Ltd(600016) had 351252, 17288 and 60232 employees respectively, an increase of 1581, 1291 and 970 respectively over the same period of last year The number of employees of China Citic Bank Corporation Limited(601998) , Bank Of Chongqing Co.Ltd(601963) , Xiamen Bank Co.Ltd(601187) , Bank Of Suzhou Co.Ltd(002966) , Bank Of Qingdao Co.Ltd(002948) , Bank Of Zhengzhou Co.Ltd(002936) and Zhangjiagang agricultural and commercial bank also increased in varying degrees.
Under the tide of financial technology and digital transformation, the demand structure of bank talents has also changed. From the perspective of the distribution of increased staff posts, most of the increased posts are also concentrated in the fields of financial technology and business development. For example, by the end of 2021, China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) R & D personnel had increased by 1161 to 10043 compared with the end of the previous year, an increase of 13.07% China Minsheng Banking Corp.Ltd(600016) during the reporting period, personnel engaged in product R & D, information technology and other professional positions were added Bank Of Zhengzhou Co.Ltd(002936) mainly increased employees in business management and support positions, with a total increase of 157 in related positions.
Turning to the reasons why banks have greatly increased personnel in the fields of financial technology and business development, Chen Mingxuan, a senior analyst of Analysys analysis financial industry, said that the reason for increasing R & D personnel is mainly to promote the competitiveness of online banking product innovation and banking technology level from the technical level, so as to improve the revenue capacity of financial technology. Pan Helin also believes that the strong demand for R & D personnel reflects that banks need a large number of talents to support financial innovation in the process of online, self-service and intelligent transformation, including more digital talents in information security and loan risk control.
From the perspective of the trend of talent recruitment, with the anchoring of financial technology and digital transformation, the “rush to recruit scientific and technological talents” of banks in 2022 continues. For example, in the spring recruitment of banks in 2022, Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited(601398) will recruit more than 1300 scientific and technological personnel and launch the “scientific and technological elite plan”, which is intended to reserve scientific and technological talents for product research and development, big data analysis, information security and other fields Bank Of Communications Co.Ltd(601328) the Financial Technology Department of the head office plans to recruit 900 people. At the same time, financial technology companies and fund companies are also increasing the recruitment of financial technology talents, and many financial management companies have also joined the “competition” for talents.
“The changes in the number and structure of bank employees in the future are largely related to the market business scale, market financial service demand, market competition trend and the development trend of digital finance.” For the change trend of the number and structure of bank employees in the future, Zhou Maohua predicts that with the development of digitization, more financial businesses will be online and physical scenes will be intelligent, and the demand for the number of some bank employees will decline. From the perspective of consumption upgrading, the demand for R & D personnel will gradually increase, and the quality and efficiency of products and services will become the core competitiveness of the bank.
Chen Mingxuan also said that in the future, the number of technology related employees in the bank’s employees is bound to rise further, and the employee structure may tend to dynamic balance, that is, online business and technology related employees may be more than offline business employees, forming or maintaining a certain proportion. For the bank related practitioners with non-technical background, in the current wave of industry science and technology, it is recommended to learn more bank technology related skills and knowledge as much as possible to increase their own hard strength.
