Bank reveals 'cut' thousands of employees

Many banks continued to restructure, streamline their apparatus, and cut staff in the first quarter of this year. In some places, the number of staff cut was up to more than 1,600 people.

Banks continue to promote streamlining their apparatus - Photo: LPB

The wave of layoffs has not stopped?

The recently released financial report for the first quarter of 2025 shows that LPBank (LPB) had only 9,570 employees at the end of March 2025. This number has decreased by 1,619 people after the first 3 months of this year.

Therefore, LPBank's employee expenses in the first quarter were VND732 billion, down 8% over the same period.

LPBank’s personnel restructuring comes just after the bank recruited hundreds of new employees last year. Last year, the bank added more than 560 employees, bringing the total number of employees to 11,189.

Despite a decrease in staff size, LPBank's pre-tax profit in the first quarter of this year reached VND3,175 billion, up 10% over the same period last year.

Another bank that has also cut a large number of employees is Sacombank (STB). According to its separate financial report for the first quarter of 2025, this bank has a total of 16,128 employees, a decrease of 930 people compared to the end of 2024.

However, the cost of employees in the period still reached 1,976 billion VND, an increase of 5% compared to the first quarter of 2024. In terms of operating efficiency, STB's net income from interest reached 6,732 billion VND this period, an increase of 16% compared to the first quarter of 2024. Total pre-tax profit was 3,589 billion VND, an increase of 39%.

Notably, last year the parent company's financial report also showed that the bank had reduced nearly 350 employees. STB's trend of cutting staff seems to continue drastically this year.

At the recent shareholders' meeting, Sacombank's leaders also said they have a policy of reducing or streamlining staff instead of recruiting on a large scale.

At the same time, the bank's leaders also said that recruiting high-quality human resources is a big challenge. Sacombank currently has three recruitment methods: from leading experts who are cooperating with Sacombank, from technology, data management and AI companies, and from widespread recruitment in the market.

Two consecutive years of thousands of people reduced

Last year, VIB was one of the banks that "aggressively" reduced its staff size after massively "recruiting" in 2023: they reduced 476 people after one year, to 11,323 employees by December 31, 2024.

By the first quarter of 2025, VIB will continue to cut 495 employees, reducing the number of employees at the parent bank to 10,828.

On the positive side, after streamlining, the average monthly income of each employee at VIB increased from VND 31.73 million/month in the first quarter of 2024 to VND 32.9 million in the first quarter of this year.

Regarding business performance, VIB's pre-tax profit in the first quarter of 2025 reached VND 2,416 billion, down nearly 4% over the same period.

The topic of “streamlining the apparatus” is also hot this year at the annual general meetings of shareholders of the banking industry. Many bank bosses affirmed that they will continue to restructure the human resources.

As at ABBank, the published minutes of the meeting clearly stated that the bank has reviewed and reorganized its organizational structure and streamlined its personnel to create a positive impact on the awareness, responsibility and actions of the team.

According to data in the financial report, last year ABBank reduced nearly 170 employees, leaving a total of 4,367 employees at the end of 2024.

The bank’s view is not to maintain a cumbersome, inefficient apparatus in the digital age. By the first quarter of 2025, ABBank had only “cut” 64 employees, bringing the workforce down to 4,303 people.

Digital transformation causes the number of staff cuts to increase day by day?

A banking expert said the number of traditional transaction offices is expected to gradually decrease, giving way to transaction activities in the digital space. At the same time, AI will replace humans in many stages.

At the 2025 annual shareholders’ meeting, the leader of a Big 4 bank also shared a plan to streamline a large-scale system. Accordingly, the bank is expected to cut several hundred transaction points and replace them with digital platform applications.

Read more Back to Topics

BINH KHANH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lo-dien-ngan-hang-cat-ca-nghin-nhan-su-20250502213817028.htm