What are the bank people thinking about when they pay to work?, Spending thousands of yuan to find an intermediary to "buy deposits" task | Employee | Bank
"I never imagined that one day I would have to pay to work." Liu Bo, who has been working at a joint-stock bank in Beijing for over a year, is a customer manager. His daily routine is to promote wealth management products, funds, and insurance products to customers and accept the bank's strict assessment system. "Among all the tasks, the one that gives me the most headache is the one assigned by the bank to collect deposits," Liu Bo said.
"At the end of June, I spent thousands of yuan to find an intermediary to buy deposits, and finally met the bank's requirement of 8 million yuan in deposits. However, I didn't expect to add 20 million yuan in deposits in the third quarter, and I felt like a big loser."
Difficulty in attracting deposits for bank personnel
"Life never stops, tasks don't stop. As a bank friend, we've been saving hard for a long time. There's nothing we can do, who wants this to be our job?" Liu Bo sighed.
In fact, many frontline employees of banks cannot escape the fate of being dominated by "deposit tasks". Whether it is the four major state-owned banks, joint-stock banks, rural commercial banks, or credit cooperatives, they will issue varying levels of deposit collection targets to their employees at different times. So, at the end of each quarter and year, it is the most tense moment for bank personnel - they are busy taking stock of their networks, searching for resources, and enjoying themselves.
"Bankers are all old actors," said Song Song, a customer manager at a state-owned large bank, referring to the task of collecting deposits at the end of each quarter. "All the deposits that were rushed in at that time were transferred in and out for a few days on the same day, and the most frustrating thing is that they have to be performed once every quarter."
Compared to Liu Bo and Song Song, 32 year old Axing has a much more relaxed attitude towards acquiring reserves. "I am an old employee of the bank and have accumulated some reliable resources that can alleviate some of the pressure. However, the situation has been different in the past two years, with lower deposit interest rates and a sharp increase in the difficulty of carrying out work. Even if I am mentally prepared, there may still be times when the pressure is so high that I want to shout 'help'."
From the current situation, the instructions issued by various banks to their employees to collect deposits are different - some banks require employees to complete the deposit quota of tens of millions of yuan within a quarter; Some shorten the timeline and require employees to complete storage tasks of at least one million yuan per month.
In this context, soliciting deposits involves the sensitive nerves of many banking professionals.
As for the consequences of not being able to complete the task of collecting deposits, Xiaoyue, an employee of a Beijing branch of a joint-stock bank, told China News Service that the bank will directly link the completion of tasks with the performance of employees. Some banks directly deduct performance-based pay, but their bank implements a "point system". If they are unable to complete tasks, points will be deducted for the current month, which will affect the quarterly and annual evaluations of employees.
"The timing of issuing deposit tasks depends on when the bank is short of this deposit," Xiaoyue added. For example, if there was a shortage of deposits in the previous quarter, the issuance of deposit collection tasks will be linked to the employee's points. "Everyone is trembling with fear because once the performance of the branch is poor, everyone will have to work overtime collectively. Last month, it was until 8 pm every day to finish work."
"Getting off work at 5:30 is purely a misunderstanding of the bank, we just don't open to the public after 5:30." Xiaoyue said that between 5:30 and 8:00 in the evening, she and her colleagues have to keep calling customers and recommending products. "When calling customers, some people are not answering, some are on the subway, some are driving, some are cooking, and some are taking care of their children... Only we are pulling deposits and selling products."
After graduation, Chi Yu became a "bank newcomer". When recalling the scene when she first joined the bank, she used the four words "full of passion" to describe it. "At that time, we had a total of 5 friends, and now I am the only one left. The reason they left was simply because they had to face work tasks that did not meet expectations, strict assessment systems, and occasionally difficult clients every day."
Today's pine trees have also been smoothed out by daily tasks such as collecting storage. Before this, Matsumoto's biggest hobbies were traveling and taking photos, but now she has very few leisure activities and only wants to rest and sleep at home when she has time.
"Pay to work"?
When bank employees are still worried about the heavy task of collecting deposits, social and online shopping platforms quietly emerge as "deposit promotion intermediaries".
The so-called "deposit promotion intermediary" is actually a "scalper" connecting deposit fund buyers and sellers. They wander between banks and clients, assisting in completing various indicators, seeking arbitrage opportunities, and earning corresponding commissions. Under the pressure of tight time and heavy tasks, some bank employees choose to use "deposit intermediaries" to complete a variety of performance indicators at their own expense.
On social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Taobao, and Weibo, there are a large number of online posts related to "deposit promotion" and "soliciting deposits". On a certain e-commerce platform, Zhongxin Jingwei found through a search using the keyword "deposit task" that a store's monthly sales of products reached over 60 pieces.
A bank employee shared their experience - after posting a deposit demand post, multiple intermediaries proactively approached to inquire about the pending quota requirements, and even staged a "bidding" drama in the comment section. After comparing the goods with three different companies, she ultimately chose an intermediary with a suitable time and acceptable commission, and completed the storage target before the end of the month.
Zhongxin Jingwei consulted multiple deposit intermediaries as bank employees. Throughout the process, the intermediary will update the real-time quotation after confirming the buyer's bank location, required deposit quantity, and deposit in and out time. After both parties reach an agreement, the buyer will send the bank account number to the intermediary. The intermediary will complete the deposit within the agreed time, and the final payment will be made by the buyer.
Regarding the specific quotation situation, Zhongxin Jingwei takes "5 million yuan", "deposit on August 15th", and "transfer out after one month" as the prerequisite conditions, and different intermediaries provide different quotations. "Deposit for a month, at a rate of 18000 yuan per day, which means depositing 10000 yuan at a fee of 1.8 yuan per day. The total amount for a month is 1.8 * 500 * 30=27000 yuan. If you are a new customer, I will give you an additional 500 yuan discount," said one of the intermediaries.
In addition, some intermediaries have offered prices of "16000 yuan per day" and "13000 yuan per day". To dispel concerns, the above-mentioned intermediary explained that the price is cheap at this time and is suitable for purchase. Usually, the deposit impulse prices at the end of the month, quarter, and year end are very high. The price of "80000 yuan per day" at the end of June this year is eagerly sought after by many people.
As for whether there are risks in the operation of deposit hedging, another intermediary, Hua Hua, stated that it is generally deposited through a second-class electronic account opened online, and bank employees are responsible for providing a QR code or the name of the branch institution. "Make sure your performance is on top of us. We will find funds to deposit and you can make the payment after it is completed. We will distribute several people to open accounts according to the amount of funds, and we will not close accounts within a year." Hua Hua repeatedly guarantees.
Regarding the phenomenon of "buying deposits out of one's own pocket", some bank employees said that although it is not a long-term solution, it can often solve urgent problems. She once spent 800 yuan to deposit 1 million yuan, but if she couldn't complete the task, the fine would be at least over 1000 yuan. In contrast, she felt that this deal was not a loss.
Some people also sneer at this behavior. "The bank earns a basic monthly salary of four to five thousand yuan, including various subsidies. The maximum amount received is just over ten thousand yuan. At the end of the month, I also need to buy a deposit and spend hundreds and thousands of yuan. What am I planning on?"
An anonymous employee of a city commercial bank told China News Service that although banks have spent a lot of time and effort in the process of "pulling deposits", the actual situation is that deposits are not evenly distributed between branches and business outlets. Specifically, the phenomenon of "moving deposits" occurs from time to time, so for banks, while maintaining their existing deposits, they also need to make efforts to "dig" other people's wallets.
Regarding this, Dong Ximiao, Chief Researcher of Zhaolian, told China News Service that bank employees are unable to complete their tasks and relying on online shopping to boost performance is considered a violation of regulations. For banks, the quality of customers purchased through this method is relatively low and has little practical significance. In addition, for customers who are "bought", it is easy to disclose personal information by providing a large number of ID card numbers, mobile phone numbers, etc. to third parties. Of course, the head office of a bank should assign tasks to grassroots institutions and employees in a scientific and reasonable manner, otherwise it will lead to employee behavior alienation and deviation.
It is worth mentioning that regulatory authorities have also been demanding that commercial banks improve their compensation management systems to fundamentally constrain deposit timing behavior. According to the official website of the State Administration for Financial Regulation, in recent years, due to unreasonable performance evaluations, some grassroots branches have engaged in violations such as "time reversal" of deposits. Several rural commercial banks, including Zhejiang Pujiang Rural Commercial Bank, have received fines of over a million yuan.
