Bank recruitment requires "bringing capital into the group" regulators warn of compliance risks

　　Securities Times reporter Du Xiaotong

　　Under the pressure of attracting deposits, some rural financial institutions turn their attention to employees with their own resources.

　　A few days ago, a recruitment announcement from Inner Mongolia Linxi Rural Commercial Bank (Linxi Rural Commercial Bank for short) attracted market attention.

Different from ordinary recruitment, the five finalists recruited by the bank belong to "resource-based talents".

According to the requirements of Linxi Rural Commercial Bank, such "talents" need to deposit no less than 10 million yuan in the bank within 10 days after being shortlisted to enter the next stage.

　　Industry insiders told Securities Times Securities China reporters that many local rural financial institutions have adopted similar recruitment methods, the main purpose is to pull deposits, and even some banks have opened the door for employees who bring their own resources, "Some of them There is no professional qualification certificate”, there is a certain compliance risk.

　　Save in the name of recruiting?

　　On April 27, Linxi Rural Commercial Bank’s WeChat public account issued an announcement on the recruitment of resource-based talents, requiring the shortlisted 5 candidates to open a deposit account in the bank’s business department for marketing, and deposit no less than 1,000. After depositing RMB 10,000, and issuing a deposit certificate, you can enter the physical examination link.

　　At present, the WeChat public account of Linxi Rural Commercial Bank has deleted the content of the above announcement, but this requirement is still listed in the recruitment announcement released by the bank in March this year.

In addition, according to the recruitment announcement, the bank also requires the newly recruited personnel to have an average daily deposit of 30 million yuan during the one-year assessment period, and the average daily deposit balance within one year after the expiration of the assessment period should not be less than 5 million yuan.

　　Securities Times Securities China reporters checked the bank's recruitment announcement and found that it is not uncommon for applicants to complete the task of depositing tens of millions of yuan in the name of "introducing resource-based talents". Banks, rural credit cooperatives, rural commercial banks and other rural financial institutions.

　　For example, a county rural credit cooperative issued a notice on the introduction of resource-based talents in March this year, requiring applicants to have certain deposit resources and strong marketing capabilities. Before the deadline for registration, applicants should introduce new deposits with a balance that is not low. at 15 million yuan.

In addition, the introduction of deposits should be low-cost deposits, and must not be the existing deposits of the business outlets of the county association before they can enter the qualification examination.

　　It is understood that employees who are introduced through resource-based talents often have an assessment period of 6 months to 1 year. During the assessment period, they belong to labor dispatch personnel. They need to complete a certain scale of recruitment indicators, and only after passing the assessment period can they be converted into formal staff.

　　In this regard, a local supervisor said that it is unfair to use deposits as a recruitment condition, and it is not conducive to the development of banks.

"Because the amount of savings determines whether a person can work in a bank, it itself is a form of discrimination against employed persons such as lack of resources and lack of interpersonal relationships."

　　He said, "With deposits as the standard, it is very easy to recruit people who do not meet the bank's work requirements to engage in banking business, and it will also reject outstanding talents from the bank, which is not conducive to the healthy development of the bank in the future."

　　compliance risk

　　"Whether from the perspective of compliance or from the perspective of business development, it is not appropriate to use deposits as heroes." The aforementioned local regulators told Securities Times Securities China reporter that some small banks have relaxed recruitment conditions for deposits, and some have passed this The personnel recruited into the bank through similar channels do not even have a professional qualification certificate, which must be a compliance problem.

　　In addition, in June 2017, the former China Banking Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on Further Regulating the Behavior of Banking Financial Institutions to Take Public Funds Deposits", which stipulates that "Banking financial institutions shall not arrange public funds deposit through the relevant responsible personnel of the main body when handling public funds deposit business. The spouses, children and their spouses and other directly interested persons are employed, promoted, or paid rewards to the above-mentioned persons, etc.”.

　　In June 2018, Article 3 of the "Notice on Matters Related to Improving the Management of Deposit Deviation in Commercial Banks" jointly issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the People's Bank of China clarified that commercial banks should urge employees to abide by industry codes of conduct, abide by professional ethics, and work with integrity. It is strictly forbidden to adopt unfair competition methods, or even obtain deposits by means of deception, bribery, exchange of interests in other aspects and transmission of long-term interests.

Commercial banks shall fully respect the wishes and service requirements of depositors, and conduct business with depositors in accordance with the principles of openness, fairness and impartiality.

　　"Commercial banks decide whether the shortlisted persons can be employed by a certain amount of deposits. If the deposits are public deposits, it is an improper transfer of interests; if it is a personal deposit, it is not carried out with the deposit subject in accordance with the principles of openness, fairness and justice. business.” said the aforementioned local regulator.

　　Small and medium-sized banks are under great pressure

　　A banking industry insider believes that the main reason behind this kind of "fancy deposit" is that some small and medium-sized banks are under heavy debt pressure, especially in the context of interest rate liberalization, horizontal competition, changes in the regulatory environment, and increased disposal of non-performing risks. Small and medium-sized banks need relatively low-cost deposits to cope with the increased cost pressure on the liability side.

　　Since 2020, village banks, rural commercial banks and other local banks' powerful tools for attracting deposits - Internet deposits have been banned by supervision, and remote deposit-taking has been strictly constrained. In addition, innovative deposit products such as file-based interest-bearing have been rectified and structural deposits have been reduced. A series of measures, such as high-interest deposit products, are "misfired", and the pressure on small and medium-sized banks to attract deposits has greatly increased.

　　Earlier, a private banker told the Securities Times Securities China reporter that their bank has "shrinked the balance sheet".

There are also many small and medium-sized banks that are difficult to give up the channel of deposit in other places, and still secretly use the Internet platform to divert or "word of mouth" through WeChat to induce customers from different places to open accounts and make deposits with high interest rates.

　　This kind of "edge ball" behavior is not a long-term solution after all.

A person close to financial regulators believes that, whether in the face of increasingly sinking competition from big banks or regulatory restrictions on cross-regional business, the optimal solution for small local banks is to give full play to their differentiated competitive advantages. .

　　"The biggest advantage of small banks is that they have a deep understanding of local customers and local economic characteristics, especially many rural commercial banks, the relationship between member culture and residents is relatively close, and the relationship is relatively deep. Under such circumstances, expand business, and can better understand customer needs. At the same time, the decision-making chain of small banks is relatively short, and it is possible to meet the differentiated needs of customers through differentiated products." He said.