Banks cut staff, transaction branches amid accelerating digital transformation

A series of banks have announced plans to cut staff and transaction offices, setting off a wave of job losses in the banking industry that has been considered one of the hottest professions in recent years.

Vietinbank will be the first in the country’s group of four largest state-owned commercial banks (Big4) to cut the number of its transaction offices.

According to a plan released at VietinBank’s AGM recently, the bank is expected to cut hundreds of transaction points to streamline the system in 2025.

Along with the cuts, VietinBank will use digital platform applications to improve customer experience. Currently, the bank is implementing 108 fundamental initiatives in Phase 1 of its digital transformation program.

About 60-70% of the bank’s products have been put on digital channels, and 99% of the bank’s transactions have been implemented via digital channels.

At private lender ABBank's recent AGM, its leaders also said that the bank would continue to streamline and optimize the operating system to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Accordingly, ABBank will reduce the number of units at its headquarters and increase the supervision responsibility of the operating and support units. At the same time, the bank will review and streamline personnel throughout the system in accordance with the new organizational model.

According to the financial report for Q1/2025, LPBank has made cuts in the workforce in Q1/2025. Accordingly, as of March 31, 2025, the number of employees at the bank was 9,570, a decrease of 1,619, or 14.46%, compared to that at December 31, 2024.

According to banks, their recent personnel cuts were mainly due to the digital transformation process and restructuring of the operating model. The application of integrated and streamlined organizational models in some positions also caused redundant personnel.

Analysts of securities companies believe that the reduction of bank staff will continue until the end of 2025 as banks are promoting digital transformation and restructuring operations to improve cost management efficiency.

At the same time, banks tend to reduce the number of employees at transaction offices and narrow the operating space to optimize management in the context of strong development of information technology.

Banks also admit that the wave of workforce cuts will continue. According to ABBank's leaders at the bank’s AGM, in the context that the entire banking industry has been applying technology and AI, the development of branches and transaction offices needs to be carefully considered to ensure operational efficiency.

Experts predict that in the next few years, AI technology will develop strongly, replacing many jobs, especially in the banking industry, as AI technology is applied more and more by banks to handle many tasks, from administrative works to statistical operations, product-service recommendations, information authentication support and data analysis.

Therefore, the shift in human resources in the finance and banking sector will continue, requiring banks to invest in training, upgrading skills for their staff and innovating recruitment policies to retain employees in strategic work areas.