Source: Huaxia Times
Reporter Feng Yingzi
In recent years, the decline in the salary of the banking industry has become a topic of concern to the market.
Recently, Huaxia Bank The materials for the upcoming General Meeting of Shareholders were released, in which the proposal on the adjustment of directors' allowance will be submitted to the General Meeting of Shareholders for consideration.
According to the proposal, the labor remuneration in the director's allowance will be increased from 180000 yuan to 280000 yuan per person per year, and the committee's post allowance will be increased from 36000 yuan to 75000 yuan per year. However, due to the change of the calculation rules and the cancellation of the conference research subsidy, the director's allowance will become 355000 yuan.
The 2023 financial report of Huaxia Bank shows that the allowance for the sole director of the bank is about 390000 yuan. This means that after this adjustment, the allowance for independent directors will decrease by about 35000 yuan per person.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher of Pangu Think Tank, told the reporter of the Huaxia Times that the banking industry is generally under pressure to make profits. Under the complex economic environment and regulatory policies, the profit space of banks is squeezed. In order to maintain stable operation, banks need to reasonably control costs. As a part of the operating costs of banks, directors' allowances naturally become the object of bank adjustment.
Income of independent directors or "rise and fall"
Recently, Huaxia Bank released the documents of the 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders, and one of them, the "Proposal on Amending the Allowance System for Directors of Huaxia Bank Co., Ltd.", caused widespread debate.
According to the above proposal, the director's allowance of Huaxia Bank consists of three parts: labor remuneration, committee post allowance, meeting and inspection research allowance.
Specifically, the labor remuneration is adjusted from 180000 yuan per year to 280000 yuan per year; The post allowance of the committee has been increased from 36000 to 75000. However, for those who serve on several special committees, the original "cumulative calculation based on the number of posts" has been changed to "no cumulative calculation".
In addition, this proposal cancels the subsidy for meetings, inspections and investigations, which was 12000 yuan/time. After adjustment, the standard of directors' allowance is 355000 yuan/person/year, calculated according to the actual tenure of directors.
In addition, according to regulations, executive directors and non-executive directors (excluding independent directors) of Huaxia Bank will not receive subsidies from the bank.
According to the 2023 financial report of Huaxia Bank, the salary of its independent director is about 390000 yuan. It is simply calculated that after the implementation of the new standard, the allowance for independent directors will decrease by about 9%.
Huaxia Bank also said that, according to the actual corporate governance of the bank and by reference to the practice of comparable peers, it would adjust the standard of directors' allowance of the bank, and it was planned to implement it on January 1, 2024.
The role of independent directors is to provide independent and professional judgment. They do not participate in the daily operation of the company and have no interest with the company, its major shareholders and actual controllers that may affect their independent judgment.
On April 12 this year, the State Council issued Several Opinions on Strengthening Supervision and Risk Prevention to Promote the High Quality Development of the Capital Market, which clearly stated that "the independent directors' supervision role should be effectively played and the performance guarantee constraints should be strengthened". This means that the responsibilities of the independent directors are further expanded.
From the public information, many listed companies have also adjusted the salary of independent directors recently, but most of them have made upward adjustments.
As far as banking industry is concerned Eastmoney According to choice data, in 2023, the total remuneration of independent directors of many banks will decline compared with the previous year. for example Bank of Communications In 2022, the total remuneration of the independent directors will be 1.06 million yuan, and in 2023, the remuneration of the independent directors will be 1.03 million yuan.
Jiang Han told the Huaxia Times that with the deepening of banking reform, the internal governance structure of the bank has also been constantly optimized, and the adjustment of director allowance standard is also part of the adjustment of the internal governance structure of the bank, aiming to establish a more scientific and reasonable salary system.
However, Jiang Han also mentioned that one of the core reasons for the salary reduction of independent directors was the decline of bank operating performance.
"Although independent directors are not bank executives, their salary growth is also constrained by the development of the industry." On May 17, an analyst told the Huaxia Times reporter that in recent years, under the downward pressure of interest margin, the overall salary of the banking industry has declined to a certain extent.
The banking industry has begun to "live a tight life"
Recently, the Central Bank released a survey report on bankers in the first quarter of 2024, showing that the bank's profitability index was 59.7%, a new low since the first quarter of 2020.
On the evening of April 29, six major banks successively completed the performance disclosure of the first quarter of 2024. In the six major industries, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China 、 agricultural bank 、 Bank of China 、 bank for economic construction The operating income and net profit attributable to the parent company of the four state-owned big banks dropped, as did the net income from handling fees and commissions.
In the context of slowing revenue growth, "tight life" has become a common phenomenon in the current financial industry, and the decline of banking remuneration has also become a consensus.
Wind statistics show that the total annual remuneration of the management of 22 listed banks in 2023 will be 427 million yuan, down 20.34% from 536 million yuan in 2022. The total management compensation of 15 banks has declined year-on-year, including 4 state-owned big banks, 6 national joint-stock banks, 3 urban commercial banks and 2 rural commercial banks.
From the perspective of regional banks, the salary of some urban commercial banks' management declined significantly. Data shows that in 2023, Bank of Zhengzhou The total remuneration of the management was 21.035 million yuan, down 17.89% year on year, Bank of Chongqing 、 BANK OF QINGDAO The total compensation of top executives decreased by 27.75% and 4.71% respectively.
In addition, on April 10 this year, at the online performance briefing, Zhao Fei, the chairman of the Bank of Zhengzhou, proposed that "based on the actual business situation and the external market environment at this stage, executive compensation, on the basis of being linked to business performance, will be reduced by 10% every year in two years from 2024."
Not only regional small and medium-sized banks, but also some national banks have begun to work on "cost reduction and efficiency increase". 2023 CITIC Bank 、 Everbright Bank 、 Ping An Bank 、 Industrial Bank The total remuneration of joint-stock banks such as Ping An Bank decreased slightly compared with the same period last year, among which Ping An Bank decreased by 5.64%.
"This year, in accordance with the requirements of the Board of Directors for a tight and strict life, we will reduce various costs and expenses, increase efficiency through cost reduction, and promote revenue growth." China Merchants Bank Wang Liang, President of the Bank, said at the 2023 Annual Performance Conference.
In addition, Xiang Youzhi, chief financial officer of Ping An Bank, introduced at the performance briefing that Ping An Bank has done a lot of work in reducing costs and increasing efficiency in recent years.
"In the case of declining revenue, we put more emphasis on timely services. We saved more than 3 billion yuan in total last year," Xiang Youzhi said.
In addition, a bank employee told the reporter of the Huaxia Times that at present, bonuses are basically reduced and year-end bonuses are discounted. The basic salary or fixed salary has not been adjusted. In the case of poor performance, the bonus is expected to be less.
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