China’s banking industry has trimmed employee salaries across the country — including six of the country’s largest state-owned banks — during the first half of the year, according to a survey by mainland news outlet Jiemian.

A survey of the interim reports of 36 banks listed in the A-shares market revealed that these landers are facing a decline in net profit and pressure over asset quality. Among those, 18 banks saw a slump in net profit year-on-year, with the trend even more obvious among the six major state-owned banks.

Bank of Communications recorded the highest average salary among the six major national banks during the first half of 2020 at 176,900 yuan (US$25,875) but the 6.32% salary drop compared to the same period last year was also the highest recorded. China Construction Bank had the second-highest fall at 6.11% to 131,400 yuan, and Bank of China came in third with a 4.93% decline to 126,600 yuan.

Postal Savings Bank of China offered the lowest average pay to employees at 120,500 yuan after a 4.57% drop from last year. Agricultural Bank of China paid its employees 123,500 yuan on average, 3.07% less than last year. The Industrial and Commercial Bank recorded the smallest decline in average salary at 0.45% to 126,000 yuan.

Among the joint-stock commercial banks, Ping An Bank had the highest average pay at 300,600 yuan, but this was a 10.31% decrease from the same period last year. Huaxia Bank recorded a 7.8% drop, the second-biggest decrease, resulting in the average pay of 174,400 yuan. The China CITIC Bank, which was rumored to have cut salaries by 20% earlier, saw an increase of 13.83% in the first half of this year.

As for city commercial banks and rural commercial banks, the average income per employee of Bank of Jiangsu in the first half of the year contracted by 17.67% to 252,300 yuan, the biggest drop among all listed banks. Bank of Shanghai ranked second with a 12.53% pay cut to 241,800 yuan. However, the net profit of these two banks in the first half of the year increased by 5% and 4% respectively.

At least 1,300 bank outlets or branches have been shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and transformation of financial technology based on available statistics, Jiemian reported.

But despite the widespread pay cut and discussion of structural adjustments, there were no large-scale layoffs in the banking industry, the report said.

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