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| Seen above is KB Kookmin Bank's automated teller machines set up at the lender's sales office in Seoul. Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
Korean banks will continue to slash their workforce in 2022 by encouraging more of them to opt for voluntary retirement and hiring fewer workers, as a growing number of their customers predominantly use online banking platforms..
Industry officials argue that the trend is unavoidable amid the rapid rise of digital banking. As banks' digital platforms grow increasingly sophisticated, demand for new employees will continue to decline over the next few years, according to industry insiders.
Data also showed that the size of the workforce at major lenders is on a gradual decline.
According to the Korea Federation of Banks, the number of employees at the country's six commercial lenders ― KB, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, Standard Chartered Bank Korea and Citibank Korea ― dropped during the past year. As of the end of March 2020, the number reached 66,317, down by 1,244 from the previous year, according to data from the federation.
Of particular note is the pace of the decline. The number of employees at the six lenders fell by 507 in 2019 compared to a year ago. But the drop widened in 2020 when the lenders' total workforce declined by 1,570 from the previous year.
This was attributable to a decline in banks' offline sales offices. The number of sales offices nationwide operated by the six banks stood at 3,515 as of the end of the first quarter, down by 31 from the end of 2020. More and more lenders will keep shutting down their unprofitable sales offices over the next few years, as they strive for agility in transforming their sales strategy into a mobile-driven one, with more people here opting for digital banking services, according to banks officials.
"All the major banks and financial groups are hyping up their achievements in digital banking, and stress the need to digitalize most of their businesses quickly," a source from a bank here said. "Even if banks cannot say publicly that they will cut their workforce, this is an inevitable decision for banks at a time when they should seek fresh revenue sources in non-conventional, digital platforms."
Demand for conventional bank clerks will continue to decline, but that of digital experts will be on a rapid rise among banks, another bank official said.
"Banks are moving to place an emphasis on building more user-friendly digital banking platforms and hope to hire more IT experts to achieve that vision," the official said. "But it is still tough for lenders to find IT talent, as demand for digital specialists is ever-growing not just in the banking industry, but most other areas in the aftermath of the coronavirus-induced non-face-to-face business activities."
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