Original title: exclusive | the number of outlets in the six major banks has plummeted by 300 cents, small and medium-sized banks have counterattacked and expanded, and the market pattern has changed dramatically!
Source: China Rural Finance magazine
With the disclosure of the bank annual report, the topic of the reduction of bank outlets has once again attracted attention. Judging from the 23 listed banks that have disclosed their 2023 annual reports, the overall number of outlets has decreased by 201, the number of outlets in six major banks has decreased by 353, and the number of outlets of the remaining 17 joint-stock banks, urban commercial banks and agricultural commercial banks has increased by 152.
The decline of bank outlets is not a new topic, it can be regarded as a clich é. In recent years, especially since the epidemic, the topic of the reduction of bank outlets has begun to attract attention. Statistics show that as of September 15, 2020, a total of 2087 bank outlets have ceased business in the withdrawal list of commercial banking institutions since that year. 2805 branches of China's commercial banks will be closed in 2021, and by the end of 2021, the number of business outlets and the total number of employees of the five major state-owned banks have shrunk significantly compared with the same period last year.
From a worldwide point of view, whether in developed countries with traditional financial industry or in some developing countries, the trend of decline in banking outlets is irreversible. After the 2008 financial crisis, there has been a phenomenon of "bank desert" in the United States, and there is an extreme shortage of banking services for low-income people. Data collected by the International Monetary Fund targeting commercial banks in 2021 show that the number of bank outlets has declined by 14 per cent in the past decade in about 100 countries. In Europe and the United States and South Korea, the trend of bank network reduction is gradually accelerating. According to a report published in the Nippon Keizai Shimbun that year, "Global banking outlets continue to decline", bank outlets around the world are decreasing. The reason is that long-term low interest rates make it impossible for banks to make money through financing, making it a heavy burden to maintain store network costs. The article predicts that funding reduction has become a top priority, and Japanese banks are bound to reduce the number of business outlets in the future.
Cost reduction is one of the starting points for banks to reduce outlets, but it is not a decisive factor.
Breaking: building a New Ecology
The reason for the decline of banking outlets around the world is the rapid digital transformation of financial services and the continuous transformation of the banking business model. This is also the decisive factor in the reduction of Bank of China outlets.
Digital finance is one of the five major articles mentioned in the Central Financial work Conference. Digital finance is an intelligent financial ecosystem, which can accurately provide customers with personalized, customized and intelligent financial services. It is a financial form that matches the digital economy. In other words, digital finance should not only serve the digital economy, but also digitally empower and transform the industry itself.
On the consumer side, digital life has changed people's behavior habits, resulting in great changes in shopping, entertainment, travel and other habits, reshaping the development concepts and models of various industries. The same is true as a financial consumer. The online scene of banking business is becoming more and more abundant, covering all aspects of the scene, whether it is loan or deposit, or itsCoinmaster50freeThe business of his scene can now be operated online. The scenes that used to be time-consuming and laborious such as queuing, calling and waiting are gone forever.
The pace determines the choice. Due to the convenience of online services, bank outlets are generally faced with new situations and new problems, such as low customer arrival rate and surplus utilization of network space, and the rate of leaving the cabinet is a very obvious reference index. According to a report released by the China Banking Association, the average withdrawal rate of the banking industry has risen from 84% in 2016 to nearly 92% in 2021.Coinmaster50free.3%. This means that some bank outlets have gone from busy to deserted, and it is inevitable to optimize the layout.
On the bank side, the vigorous development of digitization makes the supply of financial services more convenient and online more popular. Mobile banking has become the most important touchdown channel for banks. According to the 2021 China Digital Finance Survey report, the penetration rate of personal online banking users in 2021 was 63%, a growth rate of 7%. Convenient online services, rich application scenarios, as long as you move your hands, you can complete the transaction in minutes.
2022 is an important milestone for China's banking industry to accelerate the development of digital transformation. The people's Bank of China issued the Financial Science and Technology Development Plan (2022-2025) to make top-level designs and specific plans for the financial science and technology development of China's commercial banks, and to promote the development of financial science and technology and the digital transformation and upgrading of commercial banks. The guidance on the digital transformation of the banking and insurance industry requires that the digital transformation of the banking and insurance industry will achieve remarkable results by 2025. At this point, the digital transformation of China's commercial banks has obviously accelerated, and the scale of investment in financial science and technology has also continued to expand.
Large state-owned banks and joint-stock banks continue to make efforts, and small and medium-sized banks also promote digital transformation and digital operation as important strategies. in the future, digital transformation will focus more on the effectiveness of transformation and intensive management. realize the omni-directional, full-product and full-chain empowerment of financial science and technology.
It can be seen from the specific indicators. According to the annual report, the total investment in financial science and technology of the six major state-owned banks reached 122.82 billion yuan, continuing to hit a new high, an increase of 5.4 per cent over the same period last year. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China have all invested more than 20 billion yuan in financial science and technology, which are 27.25 billion yuan, 25.02 billion yuan, 24.85 billion yuan and 21.54 billion yuan respectively. In addition to funds, the proportion of scientific and technological talents is also increasing year by year, highlighting the transformational attitude of China's commercial banks to take the initiative to change.
The changes at both ends of supply and demand promote the change of the positioning of bank outlets: the effective improvement of operational efficiency, the stimulation of new vitality by stock outlets, and the expansion of the second development curve. This kind of change, for the bank network, does not mean that it is old, but coruscates the second spring.
Li: radiate the second spring
It was expected that US banking outlets would be wiped out within a decade. Although this forecast sees a trend, it is too pessimistic. In fact, for bank outlets, it is far from the time to say goodbye.
The banking outlets of large state-owned banks are shrinking, and the expansion impulses of small and medium-sized banking institutions are still there, with some closed outlets and new ones. Statistics show that while the total number of outlets of the six major banks has shrunk, the number of outlets of some joint-stock banks, urban commercial banks and agricultural commercial banks has increased. With the exception of six major banks, the other 17 banks have a total of 14694 branches, an increase of 152 from the end of 2022. For example, Societe Generale said in its annual report that the company continues to optimize the layout of its outlets to enhance financial availability and convenience. Among them, there were 1084 traditional branches, an increase of 21 over the previous year, and 836 community branches, an increase of 6 over the previous year.
Closely following the national strategic layout is the "baton". Banking institutions closely follow the national strategic layout such as the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and the revitalization of rural areas, and the number of regional networks in the Yangtze River Delta and counties is increasing to better serve key areas and weak links and better meet previously unmet needs.
A number of state-owned banks said in their annual reports that they are continuing to optimize and adjust their outlets and expand their county outlets. ICBC said that in 2023, the optimization and adjustment of 670 outlets will be completed, 52 new outlets will be invested in key urban areas with relatively insufficient service supply, 57 outlets will be invested in county areas, 15 blank counties will be covered, and the county coverage of network sites will be increased to 86.9%. The matching degree between network resources and regional social and economic resources has been steadily improved. The Agricultural Bank of China pointed out that the bank accelerated the optimization of the layout of its network, the proportion of county outlets rose to 56.4%, and the focus of financial services further sank. We will promote the further tilt of network resources to county areas, and the proportion of county outlets will increase by 0.3 percentage points over the end of last year.
Strengthening the transformation of adapting to aging is a "tender card". Aging is a problem faced by a number of countries, and strengthening aging services through bank outlets is also the focus of many countries. Compared with mobile banking, the elderly are more willing to do business at the network. For example, the Swedish government requires financial institutions to set up outlets to provide cash services within a certain distance out of concern that the number of banking outlets will make it harder for the elderly to have access to financial services.
In China, the aging service is also the key point of the banking industry, in this regard, the major banks have carried out aging transformation of their outlets in order to enhance the service experience of elderly customers. This is reflected not only in the business process, but also in the details of more humanistic care. Some banks have set up characteristic areas for the elderly to explore the creation of characteristic products and value-added service systems that are more suitable for the elderly, and integrate them with the hardware and services of the network into a four-in-one elderly service system, so that every elderly can enjoy warm, professional and intimate financial services.
Create a "safe house" to intercept fraud. In recent years, the modus operandi of illegal fraudsters have been constantly renovated. In order to intercept and block them in time, banking institutions have accurately grasped the new changes and new trends of new crimes committed by the current telecommunications network, and adopted the way of combining "technical defense" with "civil air defense." accurately identify risk accounts, pay attention to source management, strengthen the linkage between police and banks, and intercept fraudulent funds.
This has also become a new mission of bank outlets, whether it is lobby managers or tellers, can judge the signs of fraud from various signs, so as to stop it. For example, a lobby manager heard the elderly waiting for a call to discuss the topic of "health care" and "health products" with their peers. This sensitive topic immediately aroused the vigilance of the lobby manager on duty, judging that customers are very likely to encounter false "health products" type of telecom network fraud, and take timely and effective measures to help them get out of the fraud trap. There are too many such cases to mention. As an outpost to intercept fraud, bank outlets save not only a sum of money, but also one family after another, protecting people's money bags and old-age money.
All in all, the phenomenon of the reduction of bank outlets is in line with the essential law of China's financial development, and there is no need to exaggerate or worry. Under the orders and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee, the banking industry will certainly adhere to the supremacy of the people, provide more high-quality financial services for the people, and coruscate more humanistic values.
