China Minsheng Bank cut Beijing staff pay by up to 50% in austerity drive
Bank suspends work-related expenses, other benefits, source says
Pay cuts in line with China's 'common prosperity' drive
Also follow pressure to increase profitability
Adds Minsheng Bank's comment in paragraph 6
BEIJING, Sept 20 (Reuters) -China Minsheng Bank 600016.SS, 1988.HK has cut pay by up to 50% for its Beijing branch employees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, in the biggest such move by a major commercial bank, in line with the country's austerity drive.
The bank has also stopped paying for some work-related expenses and other benefits at its Beijing branch, the bank's largest with more than 4,000 employees, as part of the broader salary cuts, one of the sources said.
The measures, which have not been reported previously, have been implemented across the board at the Beijing branch, said the source. It was not immediately clear if Minsheng Bank would implement these measures at its other branches.
The up to 50% pay cut is the largest such reduction at a major Chinese commercial bank in recent years.
Both the sources declined to be named as the information was not public.
After the Reuters story was published, Minsheng Bank said the "information was false", but did not elaborate.
China's banking sector regulator, the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
'COMMON PROSPERITY'
The pay reduction fits with China's "common prosperity" drive, which was launched in 2021 to address social and income inequality as growth slowed in the world's second largest economy.
Financial firms in China, both state-owned and private, have implemented measures, including cutting salaries and bonuses, and asking staff not to wear expensive clothes and watches to work.
China Construction Bank Corp (CCB) 601939.SS, the nation's third largest commercial bank by assets, has asked employees at its headquarters to take a pay cut of at least 10%, Reuters reported in July.
China Merchants Fund Management, a top 10 fund manager, has asked senior executives to return pay received over the last five years that exceeds a new cap, Reuters reported earlier this month.
The pay cuts at Minsheng Bank also reflect profitability concerns as Chinese lenders come under pressure to lower lending costs to stimulate a economy that is verging on deflation and faces a prolonged property crisis.
Chinese banks' net interest margin stood at 1.54% at the end of June, the lowest on record, official data showed.
Minsheng Bank is a second tier, joint stock bank. It had 7.7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) in total assets at the end of last year, marking the 11th largest among China's about 4,600 banking institutions.
Founded in 1996 as China's first privately controlled commercial bank, Minsheng Bank has been hit hard by the nation's ongoing property crisis.
The lender was a major creditor of China Evergrande Group, which has been at the centre of the country's property sector crisis. It has also been hit by the financial difficulties of developer China Oceanwide, one of the bank's biggest shareholders.
In the first half of this year, Minsheng Bank's net profit fell 5.5% year-on-year. Its non-performing loan ratio of real estate loans was 5.29% in the first half of this year, up from 4.92% in 2023.
($1 = 7.0530 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; editing by Sumeet Chatterjee, Barbara Lewis and Louise Heavens
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
