Credit Card Recruiters Drop by 10,000 in 3 Years... Lost Their Jobs (Comprehensive)

Increase in Contactless Card Issuance
Continuous Reductions to Cut Costs

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] It has been revealed that the number of credit card solicitors has decreased by more than 10,000 over the past three years. This is due to the increase in non-face-to-face card issuance and card companies reducing their workforce 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 building digital-based one-stop card issuance systems 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 offices to reduce solicitor expenses. According to the Financial Supervisory Service's financial statistics system, the number of domestic branches and offices of the seven specialized card companies, which reached 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. In particular, bank-affiliated card companies plan to reduce their dependence on card solicitors through online channels and the branch networks owned by banks. As a result, commissioned and non-regular card solicitors have been pushed into unemployment.

A financial industry official said, "As the business environment changes, the number of card solicitors has decreased in recent years," and added, "Due to internal and external environmental changes, the trend of decreasing card solicitors is expected to continue."

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