Four of 10 bank officials lost jobs in past three years

About 4,200 bank officials lost their jobs last year in the course of financial sector restructuring. Overall, four out of 10 bank officials received pink slips between the end of 1997, right after the foreign exchange crisis, and the end of last year. According to statistics compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Wednesday, the number of bank officials totaled 70,474 at the end of last year, a decrease of 4,270 (6%) from 74,744 at the end of 1999.

As Taegu Bank and Cheju Bank plan to slash their manpower and Cho Hung Bank is accepting applications for voluntary retirement from its employees, even more bank officials are expected to become unemployed by the end of March, the settlement day.

Considering the fact that the total number of bank officials stood at 113,994 at the end of 1997, 38.1% of the total or 43,520 bank officials have left or been pushed out of their jobs in the past three years.

Among the banks that drastically cut their manpower were Seoul Bank (down 47.1%), Korea First Bank (down 42.3%), and Hanvit Bank (down 41.5%). A bank official said, ¡°One of the reasons for the frequent financial mishaps these days is the uneasy status of bank officials.¡±