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the topic of "bank salary cuts" is still attracting much attention. on september 23, in response to the onlinechina minsheng bankregarding the rumors of a substantial salary cut for employees of the beijing branch, minsheng bank told china business news that the rumors were seriously untrue. the beijing branch is currently operating steadily and improving, and the overall salary of employees remains stable. in response to the relevant online rumors, the beijing branch has reported the case to the public security authorities and will seriously investigate the legal responsibilities of the relevant personnel.

earlier reports said that according to sources, the beijing branch of china minsheng bank has implemented a comprehensive salary cut, with the highest reduction reaching 50%. at the same time, some work-related reimbursements and other benefits of the beijing branch of china minsheng bank have also been suspended. these measures have been fully implemented in the beijing branch, and it is not clear whether other branches will follow suit.

this is the second time since july this year that minsheng bank has been involved in salary cut rumors. in early july, there was news that minsheng bank's branches in beijing and other regions had cut salaries by 40%, and the salary cut would reach 50% by the end of the year. at that time, an insider told reporters that the relevant rumors were false.

previously, many banking professionals told reporters that the industry is under pressure and cost reduction and efficiency improvement are the trends. some banks may ease the pressure by delaying the payment of performance bonuses. another banker said that from the perspective of business operations, the remuneration of bank staff is linked to their personal work contribution, and promotion or demotion is a normal phenomenon.

dong ximiao, chief researcher of ccb, also told reporters that in addition to paying attention to the overall remuneration strategies of commercial banks, we should also objectively look at the changes in the remuneration structure behind the remuneration adjustments of bank employees. in recent years, the proportion of basic salary of bank employees has been declining, while the proportion of performance-based remuneration has been increasing, and the gap between different departments and branches has been widening. moreover, with the improvement of the remuneration system, banks have generally increased the deferred payment efforts for senior management and key positions, which is also one of the reasons why some employees' current income has decreased.

he also stressed that as a financial enterprise, the total amount of bank remuneration is closely linked to operating performance, and the changes vary from bank to bank and from person to person. in the context of the slowdown in the growth rate of banking profits and the pressure on asset quality, it is inevitable that the salary level of bank employees will be affected. this is not a phenomenon unique to the banking industry. if the performance of banks improves in the future, employee remuneration will remain basically stable, but the differences between different banks will widen.

judging from the financial reports for the first half of this year, the pressure on interest rate spreads continued, and the income from intermediary business was difficult to increase. the operating pressure of listed banks became more apparent. among the 42 listed banks, 12 had negative year-on-year growth in net profit attributable to their parent companies, which was double the 5 banks in the whole year of 2023. among them, minsheng bank achieved operating income of 67.127 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 6.17%; net profit attributable to its parent company was 22.474 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.48%.

from the perspective of salary expenditure, wind data shows that in the first half of this year, the total salary of 42 listed banks (based on the caliber of "cash paid to employees and for employees + the end-of-period balance of employee salaries payable - the beginning-of-period balance of employee salaries payable") showed negative growth for the first time in recent years, with a total of approximately 465.46 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2%. in the first half of last year, the growth rate of total salary was still around 6.4%.

in terms of per capita salary, in the first half of this year, only 12 listed banks had a positive year-on-year increase in per capita monthly salary, while the per capita salary of the remaining 30 listed banks declined to varying degrees, with the highest decline exceeding 20%. among them, the per capita salary of minsheng bank in the first half of the year was near the median, about 33,300 yuan, a decrease of 7.7% from 36,100 yuan in the same period last year.）