Credit Card Recruiters, 10,000 People Quit After 3 Years

Increase in Contactless Card Issuance and Consecutive Workforce Reductions for Cost Savings

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] It has been revealed that over 10,000 credit card solicitors have left their positions in the past three years. This is due to the increase in non-face-to-face card issuance and card companies reducing personnel to cut costs following the reduction of merchant fees. It is expected that the number of card solicitors will fall below 10,000 this year.

According to the industry on the 30th, the total number of card solicitors at seven specialized card companies?Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Woori, and Hana Card?was 11,382 as of the end of last year. This represents a sharp decline of 50.2% (11,490 people) compared to 22,872 at the end of 2016. The number of card solicitors has been decreasing since 2017. The number, which reached 22,872 in 2016, dropped to 16,658 in 2017, 12,607 in 2018, and 11,382 in 2019. The number of card solicitors decreased by 1,225 last year alone.

The decline in card solicitors is mainly attributed to card companies strengthening digital finance and increasing non-face-to-face issuance. Recently, customer acquisition methods have shifted from face-to-face to online-centered non-face-to-face methods. Card companies are also responding by establishing a digital-based one-stop card issuance system to enhance customer convenience. Among consumers, the perception that non-face-to-face card issuance offers greater benefits such as discounts and rewards is spreading.

The tightening of management by card companies due to deteriorating profitability has also had an impact. The industry forecasted that annual revenue would decrease by about 800 billion KRW last year due to the government's comprehensive reform of card fees. It is pointed out that card companies reduced non-regular workers, starting with card solicitors, to cut labor costs. In fact, card companies consolidated some regional sales offices to reduce solicitor costs. According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s Financial Statistics System, the number of domestic branches and business offices of the seven specialized card companies, which was 287 in the first half of 2016, decreased to 207 in the first half of last year.

Issuing cards through card solicitors is a relatively high-cost channel. Card companies have paid about 150,000 KRW in solicitation fees each time a solicitor acquires a card. From the card companies’ perspective, expanding online channels can reduce these solicitation costs to less than half.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.