Gender Ratio in Hiring at Top 5 Banks: Hana Bank Leads in Female Recruitment

Hiring Inequality at Banks Emerged in 2017
Comparison of Disclosures from Five Major Banks, 2017?2024
Hana Bank's Female Hiring Ratio Rose from 28.57% to 58%
Only 7.74% of Executives Are Women, Glass Ceiling Remains

The gender ratio in new hires at South Korea’s five major commercial banks (KB Kookmin, NH Nonghyup, Woori, Shinhan, and Hana Bank) has drawn attention following the Supreme Court ruling on Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Youngjoo’s violation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Compared to 2017, when most banks faced allegations of hiring irregularities, the gender gap has narrowed or, in some cases, women have outnumbered men among new hires. Hana Bank, in particular, has maintained the highest proportion of female hires.

According to an analysis of regular disclosures posted by the Korea Federation of Banks on February 2, out of 1,927 new hires at the five major commercial banks in 2024, 966 (50.13%) were women. This marks a significant improvement from 2017, when concerns were raised about gender imbalance in new hires and women accounted for only 45.03% (644 out of 1,430).

Back in October 2017, Assemblywoman Sim Sangjeong of the Justice Party raised suspicions of hiring irregularities at Woori Bank during a National Assembly audit. Both the Financial Supervisory Service and the prosecution launched special investigations into the hiring practices of commercial banks. As a result, key banking executives, including Chairman Ham, were indicted on charges of artificially manipulating gender ratios in hiring.

In response, the Korea Federation of Banks introduced model guidelines in June 2018 to prohibit discrimination based on gender, region, or educational background in the hiring process. That same year, the Financial Services Commission revised the public disclosure format in the banking supervision regulations, making it mandatory to disclose the gender ratio of new hires.

Overall Increase in Female Hires... Hana Bank Up, Woori Bank Down

Although the overall proportion of female hires has fluctuated year by year, the trend has been one of improvement. Since 2016, when the issue of gender equality in banking emerged as a potential legal risk, banks have been disclosing the gender ratio of new hires and implementing blind recruitment.

Hana Bank, which has faced legal challenges for over eight years due to alleged violations of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, saw its female hiring rate rise from 28.57% in 2017 to 40.66% in 2018. The proportion continued to increase, reaching 53.12% in 2019, 68.42% in 2020, 44.82% in 2021, 60% in 2022, 54% in 2023, and 58% in 2024.

Nonghyup Bank also saw its female hiring rate rise from just 36.31% in 2017 to 48.21% in 2018, 46% in 2019, 46.7% in 2020, 49.7% in 2021, 48.4% in 2022, 53.4% in 2023, and 56.6% in 2024, surpassing 50% in 2023. KB Kookmin Bank has maintained a female hiring rate between 46% and 52% each year since 2017. At Shinhan Bank, except for 2017 (36%) and 2023 (39%), women have accounted for 46% to 57% of new hires.

However, Woori Bank, which filled 55.7% of its new positions with women in 2017, saw this figure drop to 56.7% in 2018, 51.5% in 2019, 45.8% in 2020, 36.2% in 2021, 37.6% in 2022, 45.8% in 2023, and 37.2% in 2024, indicating a downward trend. A Woori Bank representative stated, “We conduct recruitment strictly according to the principles of blind hiring, without considering gender, educational background, or region of origin. The same standards and procedures are applied throughout all stages, including document screening, written tests, and interviews, and the final composition of hires is determined by the outcome of these processes.”

12 Out of 155 Executives Are Women... The Glass Ceiling Remains

While the proportion of women among new hires is rising, the path to executive positions remains steep. According to disclosures from the five major banks, only 9 out of 170 executives (5.29%) were women. By 2024, eight years later, this figure had increased slightly to 12 out of 155 executives (7.74%). Despite the passage of time, the proportion of women in executive roles has increased by just 2.45 percentage points.

The same trend is seen among vice presidents, often referred to as the “stars of banking.” As of the beginning of this year, only 8 out of 89 vice presidents (9%) at the five major banks were women. Although the total number of vice presidents increased by 8 compared to the previous year, the number of female vice presidents rose by only one.

A banking industry insider commented, “The number of female executives has not yet increased significantly, but the number of mid-level female managers is rising, and various leadership training programs are being offered to female employees. We expect the proportion of women to increase naturally over time.”

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