Financial Firms Slim down But Increase IT Staff

Total employees in banks and other financial institutions have dwindled but their army of IT staff has grown as banking moves increasingly online.

The Bank of Korea said that the number of executives and employees of major financial companies shrank 0.7 percent last year to 224,060. But IT personnel grew 12.4 percent to 11,541.

The proportion of IT staff exceeded five percent for the first time, soaring from 4.5 percent at the end of 2020 to 5.2 percent last year. 

The figures come from a survey of 20 banks, 86 investment firms, 41 insurers and eight credit card companies by the BOK.

On average every financial firm has 74.5 IT staff, up from 65.4 in 2019. As competition for online financial services intensified, last year's budget for the IT sector in those firms was W7.97 trillion, up more than 14 percent (US$1=W1,384).