China Economic Weekly – Economic Net News (reporter Zhang Yan) the reduction of bank outlets and teller transformation have been hot topics in the banking industry in recent years. According to media statistics, in the list of withdrawal of commercial banking institutions in 2021, a total of 2805 bank outlets terminated business, a decrease of 889 compared with the previous year.
Recently, with banks successively disclosing their financial reports for 2021, the phenomenon of further contraction of bank outlets has once again attracted attention. Relevant financial reports showed that by the end of 2021, the number of business outlets and the total number of employees of the six state-owned banks had decreased significantly compared with the previous year. Among them, except for the number of outlets not announced by Bank of communications, the number of outlets disclosed by the other five state-owned banks decreased by 566 compared with the end of 2020. In terms of the number of employees, the number of employees of five large state-owned commercial banks, including industry, agriculture, China Communications, postal savings and so on, decreased by 13345 compared with the end of the previous year.
In response to this situation, on April 15, at the press conference on the operation and development of the banking and insurance industry in the first quarter held by the state information office, Wang Chaodi, chief inspector, director of the general office and spokesman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said that the physical outlets of commercial banks contracted, which is an objective phenomenon. However, this does not mean that the Bank Of China Limited(601988) industry market is shrinking. On the contrary, this is a normal phenomenon under the current environment of high development of informatization and networking.
Wang Chaodi believes that the phenomenon of the decline in the flow of people in the bank’s outlets and the change of customers’ consumption habits objectively requires the bank to reshape the organizational structure, innovate the system and mechanism, and provide Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) with more convenient electronic and automated services.
“Now generally Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) in the process of financial services, the application level of mobile phone and network informatization is relatively high or even the highest in the world. Young comrades in particular may have little habit of carrying cash when they go out. This is a profound change brought by the development of economy and finance and informatization to the financial industry.” He further explained.
The reporter of China Economic Weekly learned that in recent years, the banking industry has paid more and more attention to the investment in financial technology. On the one hand, by promoting the digital transformation, most bank outlets have strengthened the processing capacity of online businesses such as mobile banking and app, and set up self-service services such as “smart counter” and “intelligent all-in-one machine” in bank outlets, resulting in a gradual increase in the off counter rate of banking business. On the other hand, in the structural adjustment of employees, the proportion of information technology personnel is increasing year by year. Take Postal Savings Bank Of China Co.Ltd(601658) as an example. In 2020, the proportion of scientific and technological personnel in the bank was about 2.31%. By the end of 2021, the proportion of scientific and technological personnel in Postal Savings Bank Of China Co.Ltd(601658) had increased to 2.76%.
With the popularity of digital transformation, if you walk into a bank outlet at random, you will find that there are fewer and fewer “high counters” (counters for business handling) in the outlet. Some banks even set up only one “high counter” to handle reception business, and all traditional businesses such as cash withdrawal, deposit, transfer and card handling have been transferred to the intelligent counters independently completed by customers.
It is worth noting that while digital transformation improves efficiency, it also creates a “digital divide” for some elderly people. For some elderly people who are not used to online operation and are not familiar with smart counters, the inclusive nature of smart financial services needs to be further improved.
Wangchaodi said that while canceling some outlets, the cbcirc led commercial banks to set up some new outlets in some regions. On the whole, the number of outlets and staff have maintained a basically stable trend. In the next step, the CBRC will continue to lead banking and insurance institutions to establish differentiated development strategies and further improve the scientificity, rationality and order of the layout of branches.
“Objectively speaking, it requires us to reshape the organizational structure, innovate the system and mechanism, and provide Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) with more convenient electronic and automated services. On the other hand, large banks, including all commercial banks, need to further strengthen top-level design and overall planning, enhance the scientificity and rationality of the layout of branches, continuously improve the layout of outlets, optimize the personnel structure, and strengthen the support for blank and weak areas of financial services.” Wang Chaodi said.
