State-owned banks suffer executive staff exodus

Since the start of the year, pay packages for bank executives have been capped at 600,000 yuan ($94,488), according to sources close to the matter and quoted in Time Weekly, a magazine based in Guangdong.

But the majority of executives that left this year have remained in the traditional banking sector, while others have moved to private banks or online finance companies.

In January, Chen Wei, former vice-president of Ping An Bank Co Ltd, joined Lufax.com, an online peer-to-peer, or P2P, lending platform. He took up the post as vice-president.

Chen Dekang, former vice-president of Industrial Bank Co Ltd, made a similar decision.

He joined WeBank, which is backed by one of the big three online players Tencent Holdings Ltd, as a member of the board of supervision.

"Some departures may have something to do with the rapid growth of financial innovation," Wu said. "But some can just be the result of the so-called revolving-door effect within the banking sector, given the State-owned nature of the top banks."

As for the executives who have already opted to pursue other opportunities, most of them are under the age of 50. This represents a blow to traditional State-owned banks which are in danger of losing the brightest and the best.

Many of those who have left are highly ambitious with strong personal goals, according to Zeng Gang, director of banking research at the Institute of Finance and Banking under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Yet he also stressed that this shake-up in the industry is a positive sign of a more market-driven sector.

"It's a sign of a more efficient allocation of resources in the banking sector that was once dominated by the big State-owned players," Zeng said.

"In fact, the top executives were the last group of people to leave. The departure of employees at lower levels had already started to take place much earlier than that," he added.