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Salary cuts and layoffs have become the most concerned topics for bankers this year.

However, these topics often remain at the level of individual employee cases or emotional expressions, and have not been supported by detailed data.

On the evening of August 15, Ping An Bank released its 2024 interim report, disclosing detailed information on the number of employees, providing a complete sample of the bank's layoffs in the first half of this year.

The House of Finance and Economics noted that from the perspective of Ping An Bank's representativeness in the Chinese banking system, Ping An Bank is a national joint-stock commercial bank. It has large state-owned banks above it and local city commercial banks below it. It also occupies an upper-middle position among joint-stock banks and can be regarded as a representative sample and typical portrait of China's banking industry.

Are the layoff ratios of the head office and branches the same? Which branches have the highest layoff ratios? Which types of employees have the highest layoff ratios? Has the number of employees at the credit card center decreased after the "relocation-style layoffs" incident?

By comparing Ping An Bank's data at the end of 2023 and as of June 30, 2024, we can clearly see the overall personnel changes and institutional situation of the bank, and find answers to the hot issues that bank people are concerned about.

Which branch has laid off more employees?

Judging from the data from Ping An Bank, the bank layoffs in the first half of this year were by no means groundless but real action.

Overall, within half a year, the number of Ping An Bank employees dropped from 42,757 to 40,452, with 2,305 layoffs. This data only applies to Ping An Bank, not Ping An Wealth Management.

It can be calculated from this that Ping An Bank's overall layoff rate is approximately 5.4%.

Among them, the number of employees at Ping An Bank's head office dropped from 7,746 to 7,246, with 500 people being laid off. The layoff rate was about 6.5%, slightly higher than the bank's average.

The Financial House noted that Ping An Bank's branches in various regions also laid off employees, but the proportions were different. The largest branch in Shenzhen reduced its staff from 4,214 to 4,024, cutting 190 employees, becoming the branch with the largest number of layoffs; the Shanghai branch reduced its staff from 2,221 to 2,079, cutting 142 employees.

Ping An Bank has five branches with more than 1,000 employees, and the layoffs in all branches are more than 100. Among these five branches with more than 1,000 employees, the Hangzhou branch has the highest layoff rate, nearly 9%.

Corresponding to the staff cuts, the number of Ping An Bank's institutions has also decreased. The number of branches has not changed, which is 109 (including the Hong Kong branch), but the number of business offices has dropped from 1,201 to 1,180, a decrease of 21. Among them, the number of Shenzhen branches has decreased from 101 to 97, a decrease of 4.

Credit card center after the "relocation-style layoffs" storm

Credit card centers are often the largest employers of bank personnel. The total number of employees at Ping An Bank's credit card center has been reduced from 1,742 to 1,629, with 113 layoffs.

Ping An Bank's Auto Consumer Finance Center, which also has a large number of employees, saw its total number of employees drop from 835 to 823, making it the department that was relatively least affected by the layoffs.

Not long ago, some media disclosed that the staff of Ping An Bank's credit card R&D center and consumer finance R&D departments in Shanghai will be relocated to Shenzhen, questioning whether Ping An Bank is "laying off employees in disguise" by moving back to Shenzhen.

Ping An Bank responded later, saying, "The news on the Internet about our bank's disguised layoffs is not true. Due to historical reasons, some departments of our head office have offices in different locations. In order to strengthen management and improve efficiency, some departments have recently been conducting coordinated management of office locations."

Judging from the 113 layoffs at the credit card center, the layoff ratio is about 6.5%, which is not much different from the overall ratio and other branches. This shows that even if the workplace is relocated, the impact on employee layoffs is not significant.

Although the relocation did not have a significant impact on layoffs at the credit card center, the financial report showed that Ping An Bank's credit card business had declined.

The financial report shows that as of the end of June 2024, Ping An Bank's credit card accounts receivable balance was 470.999 billion yuan, a decrease of 8.4% from the end of the previous year; the number of credit card accounts in circulation was 51.6558 million, a decrease of 4.1% from the end of the previous year.

The asset size of the credit card center also dropped from 496.451 billion yuan to 448.058 billion yuan, a drop of nearly 10%.

In the first half of 2024, Ping An Bank's bank card fee income was 6.412 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 23.3%, mainly due to the decrease in fee income from credit card business.

Although the Automobile Consumer Finance Center was the least affected in this round of layoffs, its asset size also declined in the first half of the year, from 294.894 billion yuan to 274.590 billion yuan, a decrease of about 7%.

Which type of employees has a high layoff rate?

Ping An Bank divides its employees into banking business, professional and technical, and management support categories, with the vast majority of them being banking business. So, which category of employees has a higher rate of layoffs?

At the end of 2023, Ping An Bank had 34,496 banking employees, but by the end of June 2024, the number had become 32,308, with 2,188 layoffs.

This shows that out of the total 2,305 layoffs, 2,188 were in banking business, accounting for 95%.

The layoff rate of banking staff was about 6.3%, slightly higher than the overall average.

In contrast, Ping An Bank only laid off 24 professional and technical staff and 77 management support staff across the bank.

After laying off 2,305 employees, what changes have occurred in Ping An Bank's employee salaries? Has there been a salary cut? What is the percentage of the salary cut?

But there is no clear data on these issues in the financial reports.

There is a data that may verify Ping An Bank's salary cut from the side. The interim report shows that in the first half of 2024, Ping An Bank's business and management fees were 21.109 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.9%. However, the cost-to-income ratio was 27.37%, an increase of 0.92 percentage points year-on-year.

In the interim report, Ping An Bank stated that it will continue to deepen its digital transformation, support investment in strategic key businesses, and enable business innovation; at the same time, it will practice refined management, streamline daily expenses, reduce workplace costs, and accurately allocate business resources.