[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Amid the crisis of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), banks are enjoying a warm winter by agreeing on '200% performance bonuses' and the like. This is thanks to a significant increase in profits due to a surge in loans last year.
According to the financial sector on the 24th, since the end of last year, labor and management at Shinhan Bank, NH Nonghyup Bank, Woori Bank, and KB Kookmin Bank, except for Woori Bank, have successively reached agreements on wages and collective agreements (wage and collective bargaining agreements).
Regarding the wage increase rate, all four banks' labor and management accepted the 1.8% agreed upon earlier by the higher-level organizations, the Financial Labor Union and the Financial Industry Employers Council. It is also common that half (0.9%) of the 1.8% is donated to a public interest foundation.
Although the names differ by bank, performance bonuses are at the level of 180-200% of the ordinary wage, including the base salary, which is slightly less or similar to the previous year. Kookmin Bank and Nonghyup Bank give 200%, while Shinhan Bank gives 180% as performance bonuses.
In the case of Woori Bank, whose labor and management reached an agreement on the 13th, the payment and amount of special bonuses will be decided after the net profit for the previous year is confirmed.
Although the wage increase rate is 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous year (2%) and the performance bonus ratio at some banks has slightly decreased, considering encouragement and consolation payments paid separately from performance bonuses and newly established welfare benefits, there is an analysis that the total amount has increased.
The reason why the wage situation in the banking sector is better amid the economic cold wave is that, excluding export industries, the profits of banks and other financial sectors, which are rare among domestic industries, have increased.
Looking at the cumulative performance up to the third quarter of last year, KB Financial Group (2.8779 trillion won) increased by 3.5% compared to the same period in 2019, and Shinhan Financial Group (2.9502 trillion won) also increased by 1.9%. Both are record highs. The third-quarter cumulative net profits of Hana Financial Group (2.0161 trillion won) and Nonghyup Financial Group (1.4608 trillion won) also increased by 3.2% and 4.8% respectively compared to the same period last year, so if the trend continues, the five major financial groups are expected to easily achieve record-high profits this year.
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