Behind the wave of layoffs at banks

ngân hàng - Ảnh 1. — Many jobs in the banking and finance industry will disappear and be replaced by AI - Illustration photo AI

In the first half of this year, LPBank emerged as the bank with the most drastic cuts, with a total of 1,986 employees leaving - equivalent to nearly 18% of the total workforce. Meanwhile, last year, LPBank increased its workforce by 562 employees.

Retail banks cut staff the most

In the retail banking group, VIB and Sacombank also recorded a reduction of over 1,000 employees. Specifically, in the first 6 months of the year, VIB reduced 1,186 employees (nearly 500 in the whole of last year). Sacombank also cut 1,158 employees in the second half of 2025, after reducing 354 in the whole of 2024.

Besides,ACB also reduced 607 people, down to 12,240 employees; ABBank reduced 469 people, down to 3,240 people; Agribank reduced 273 people, maintaining 40,691 people.

Notably, Vietcombank, which was one of the most active recruiters in the industry in 2024 (increased by 796 people), has now also slightly reduced its workforce by 191 people, to 23,347 people.

VietinBank is the bank that closed many transaction offices in the first half of 2025. However, contrary to expectations of a wave of staff reduction, the total number of employees at this bank still increased slightly by 15 people, bringing the total to 22,507 people as of June 30. However, VietinBank is currently the bank with the lowest increase in staff among more than 10 banks that recruited more people in the first 6 months of this year.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre, Mr. Le Hoai An, a banking strategy research expert, said that the staff reduction in many Vietnamese banks is a result of the digital transformation trend from the previous period. Retail banks have cut staff most clearly. The main reason is that banks are shifting more strongly to lending to businesses, narrowing the personal lending segment.

According to Mr. An, the processes related to personal loans such as home loans, car loans, or home repairs have been automated a lot. For example, an employee who previously could only process 5 car loan applications/month can now do more because the system has automated most of the operations, reducing paperwork and signing.

In addition, according to Mr. An, the online customer identification process (eKYC) also helps reduce staff at the transaction counter. Business lending is more difficult to automate due to the nature of each industry and business. This explains the strong trend of staff reduction in retail banks.

AI "sweeps", Vietnam is only in the early stages

A representative of a commercial bank told Tuoi Tre: Interest rates must be continuously cut, reducing costs is the top priority of banks. Large banks in Europe and the US have begun to record a large number of employees quitting due to artificial intelligence (AI), in Vietnam, the real impact of AI on human resources is still in the early stages.

Mr. Le Hoai An also agreed: It is predicted that in the next 3 years, Vietnamese banks will truly witness drastic changes when AI begins to have a strong impact.

In fact, data from financial reports shows that in the past 5 years, the net growth rate of human resources of banks has only been about 1 - 2% per year, while income has increased by 10 - 15%.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre, Ms. Tran Thi Nguyet Oanh, director of human resources management, HSBC Vietnam, cited the Future of Jobs 2025 report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), saying that job groups such as bank tellers and secretaries will witness the second highest job loss rate among all occupations, just after secretarial services.

According to Ms. Oanh, the account opening process on the mobile application is completely digitized, which means that customers do not need to go to the bank branch to fill out paperwork and documents. The application of AI in data analysis or transaction verification to prevent fraud is also becoming more and more popular. This means that simple, repetitive tasks such as data entry and running reports are easily replaced by automation and
digitization

"A series of virtual assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Copilot also affect the assistant's work. In particular, recently, OpenAI introduced a new feature that allows ChatGPT to perform complex tasks like an assistant," said Ms. Oanh.

Will AI create new jobs?

Ms. Tran Thi Nguyet Oanh emphasized that although technology can replace some jobs, it also opens up many opportunities.

According to WEF's report, the finance and capital markets industry is expected to apply AI technology more than other industries, and needs to recruit more big data experts, AI and machine learning experts, and security management experts.
cyber security...

Mr. Dinh Duc Quang, Director of Currency Trading at UOB Vietnam, also believes that many traditional positions in banking are being automated. However, jobs that require communication skills, the ability to persuade and build relationships with customers still require the human element. This is the space where the new generation of banking personnel needs to play their role, becoming a bridge between technology and customers in a constantly changing financial environment.

Will the number of jobs lost due to AI continue to grow?

A study by the International Labor Organization (ILO) found that about 2.3% of jobs worldwide could be fully automated. Currently, 47% of tasks are performed entirely by humans, a figure that will fall to 33% by 2030.

Mr. Le Hoai An commented that new technologies often create new jobs, but AI increases labor productivity greatly, possibly 5 times. Even if the amount of work in the economy increases, it is difficult to increase 5 times to compensate for the surplus labor. Therefore, Mr. An believes that the number of jobs that disappear due to AI will be much larger than the number of new jobs created.

About 10% of bank staff may be cut

Earlier this year, DBS, one of the largest banks in Singapore and Southeast Asia, caused a stir when it announced plans to cut about 4,000 employees over the next three years, representing nearly 10% of its current workforce. This was the first time a major Asian bank had publicly acknowledged AI as the main cause of this wave of layoffs.

For Vietnam, Mr. Le Hoai An said that there will usually be a delay of several years compared to the international level, so it is possible that by 2027, about 10% of the staff of all 27 banks will be cut synchronously. This will be a much larger number than the current 1 - 2%. Banks are training to increase labor productivity for employees, not to replace them.

BINH KHANH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dang-sau-lan-song-sa-thai-o-ngan-hang-20250810232638555.htm