Staffing Costs at China’s Listed Banks Jumped 6.7% Last Year
An Zhuo
DATE:  Apr 14 2020
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Staffing Costs at China’s Listed Banks Jumped 6.7% Last Year Staffing Costs at China’s Listed Banks Jumped 6.7% Last Year

(Yicai Global) April 14 -- Total employee expenditure at 17 of China’s listed banks rose nearly 6.7 percent annually to CNY484.4 billion (USD68.7 billion) in 2019, with the average annual salary standing at CNY220,000 (USD31,230).

Some 21 mainland-listed banks with a total 2.18 million employees had published their 2019 financial reports as of yesterday. 17 of them detailed their employee expenses, including wages, bonuses, allowances and subsidies.

Shenzhen-based Ping An Bank was the most generous, giving each worker an average of CNY480,000 a year, up 15 percent annually, though only staff at middle-level management or above were earning this amount. Tech staff are the highest paid at each tier, a junior worker at the lender told Yicai Global.

Ping An had more than 7,500 technical personnel at the end of 2019, up 34 percent from a year earlier. Its information technology spending jumped 35.8 percent from 2018 to 2019, with investment in research reaching CNY1.1 billion (USD156 million), according to its report.

Four of the banks paid CNY400,000 a year or more on average, all national joint-stock banks. China Merchants Bank paid CNY440,000, China Minsheng Bank paid CNY429,100, and China Zheshang Bank paid CNY420,000.

State-owned banks offered the lowest remuneration with the Agricultural Bank of China the worst offender, paying CNY172,000 per staff member, up just 0.5 percent annually as it lost 9,680 workers throughout 2019. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was the second-lowest salary payer, giving an average of CNY181,400. It also lost 4,190 employees during 2019.

Editors: Dou Shicong, James Boynton

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Keywords:   Ping An Bank,Salary