Financial Sector Reduces Workforce but IT Staff Increases... Surpasses 10,000 (Comprehensive)

2020 Financial Informatization Promotion Status

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eun-byeol] The number of IT workers in domestic financial companies has exceeded 10,000 for the first time. Although financial companies are reducing the number of employees, the active increase in non-face-to-face financial transactions since the COVID-19 pandemic has led to aggressive efforts to secure IT personnel.

According to the "2020 Financial Informatization Promotion Status" published on the 7th by the Financial Informatization Promotion Council chaired by the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Korea, the IT workforce of 150 domestic financial companies reached 10,265 at the end of last year, a 3.9% increase compared to the previous year. The survey covered 19 domestic banks, 82 financial investment firms, 41 insurance companies, and 8 credit card companies.

During the same period, the total number of employees in financial companies decreased by 3,046 (1.3%) from 228,767 in 2019 to 225,721 at the end of last year. Accordingly, the proportion of IT personnel among total employees increased from 4.3% to 4.5%. The number of IT outsourcing personnel in domestic financial companies was 14,075, a 2.7% increase from 13,704 the previous year. The proportion of outsourcing personnel among the total IT workforce reached 57.8%. Among all respondent companies, 78.7% (118 institutions) had appointed and operated a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the executive level. Among them, 21.2% (25 institutions) had full-time CISOs. This is another indication that financial institutions are investing heavily in IT personnel.

However, the IT budget of domestic financial companies decreased by 2.7% to 6.9761 trillion KRW last year compared to the previous year. This appears to be due to some banks completing next-generation system construction in 2019, resulting in reduced spending last year.

Use of non-face-to-face financial services is also increasing. The daily average number of internet banking (including mobile banking) transactions at domestic banks and post office financial services reached 13.78 million, with a transaction amount of 58.8011 trillion KRW, increasing by 13.2% and 20.7%, respectively. The use of "mobile trading" via smartphones recorded an all-time high. The daily average transaction amount was 26.6581 trillion KRW, a sharp increase of 219.6% compared to the previous year. In just one year, the scale of stock trading using smartphones more than tripled on a daily average basis.

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