Following regulatory requirements that deposit appraisal indicators should not be given to non-marketing departments or individuals, there are still a number of banks that are in danger and subject to penalties. On 14 january, the beijing journalist found that in the past 2024, a number of banks, including the bank of taizhou, hangzhou branch, the zhejiang changshan agricultural chamber of commerce and industry, the zhejiang ka-sun united town bank and the fujian qinghu rural credit cooperative association, had been subject to local supervision for issuing deposit appraisals to non-marketers or individuals。
In fact, full-time marketing in the banking sector has become an undisclosed secret of the industry, especially during the “open-door red” period of each year, where banks have become more effective, and some of them have assigned to individuals the task indicators, including deposits, in order to achieve the target on schedule or even exceed the target, with the participation of some of the middle- and back-office workers in non-marketing positions. In the opinion of analysts, full-time marketing is difficult to completely prohibit in intense market competition, but non-market sector employees should be involved in marketing in a manner that encourages rather than imposes test targets or penalties, and employees in back-office operating risk positions should be carefully involved in marketing, avoiding the use of their positions to perform marketing tasks。
Marketing irregularities are punishable
A number of banks have been penalized for non-compliance in the distribution of deposits for marketing tasks. On 14 january, the beijing journalist found that in 2024, several banks, including the zhejiang ka-sun united town bank, the zhejiang changshan farmer's bank, the zhejiang yonggang farmer's bank, the zhejiang qianhu rural credit union association and the hangzhou branch of the taizhou bank, had been subject to local supervision for issuing deposit appraisals to non-marketers or individuals。
In the case of the zhejiang ka-sun united town bank, the bank was fined $1. 4 million for issuing deposit appraisal targets to non-marketing sectors, issuing deposit appraisal targets to individuals and absorbing deposits in kind. Zhong yongming, then president of the united town bank of ka-sun, was warned by the police。
Before the zhejiang ka-sun united township bank, the zhejiang changshan farmer bank was also fined 2. 9 million yuan for violating the time-point deposit appraisal targets and for issuing deposit appraisals to non-marketers and employees, and was warned by the vice-president of zhejiang changshan farmer and vice-president of zhejiang。
Referring to the frequent penalties imposed on banks for issuing deposit appraisal indicators to non-marketing sectors or individuals, suzuri, senior researcher of su-hyeonji, said that, on the one hand, it was clear that such assessments were rooted in the bank's long-standing and even “unusual” practices and, on the other hand, that the banking institutions in question ignored regulatory requirements and even survived。
In fact, the task of marketing non-compliance with assessed deposits has long been explicitly prohibited by regulation. According to the circular on regulating competition in the market and prohibiting high interest collection, banking financial institutions are prohibited from establishing single deposit appraisals and incentives, from issuing deposit appraisal targets to non-marketing sectors, from disaggregating deposit appraisal indicators to individuals and from linking deposit appraisal indicators to employees ' personal remuneration and administrative job placements。
The senior financial regulatory policy expert zhou zheng zhou believed that while the non-compliance in the distribution of deposits could be effective in the short term in raising deposit targets and thus meeting the bank's performance objectives, the financial regulatory authorities had originally designed the regulations to prevent unfair competition within the bank and to prevent employees from using irregular means to attract deposits in order to fulfil their mandate, such as through high-interest savings and gifts. At the same time, for bank employees in the non-marketing sector, the middle- and back-office risk, the operator's job is to manage the risks and internal controls associated with the business and, if similarly assigned to deposit marketing, to “be both a pioneer and a gatekeeper” is clearly contrary to their job responsibilities. Thus, the penalties imposed by the financial supervision authorities on the commercial banks concerned are intended to maintain the normal financial order and avoid a series of irregularities。
It's very popular in marketing
While regulation has explicitly prohibited the release of deposit appraisal indicators to non-marketing sectors or individuals, full-time marketing in the banking sector is common。
“in the midst of intense market competition, some commercial bank deposit competitions are more difficult and performance appraisal systems are not reasonable. In order to fulfil the deposit growth task, some commercial bank management has adopted a full-time marketing strategy, involving both senior and grass-roots employees in deposit assignments to ensure that the bank's deposit targets are met”, said zhou yichin。
In particular, during the “open-door red” period of each year, the banks are more robust than ever, and some of them break down the task indicators, including deposits, to individuals in order to meet the targets set。
“all of us now are full-time marketing, whether it is a marketing job or not, and some medium-sized bank affiliates have revealed that, in addition to common deposit marketing, such operations as credit cards, precious metals, personal pensions, etc., require a marketing test. Another employee in the middle and back office of a large bank stated that during the “open door red” period, the branch had no job, the entire staff needed to be involved in marketing, and that failure to complete the task indicators could result in the withholding of performance, while the relevant indicator appraisal would also serve as an important reference for the annual staff appraisal。
In some cases, small and medium-sized banks even explicitly promote full-scale marketing. For example, the head office of a listed bank mentioned in its “opening red” report in 2025 that “opening red” marketing and various specialized testing methods were being read in a comprehensive manner at the various business sites, from “everyone is responsible” to “school catch-up” in marketing。
Suzuri stated that, in general, full-scale marketing existed in small and medium-sized banks, reflecting a lack of specialization in the division of responsibilities among small and medium-sized banks and a blind pursuit of short-term performance, but in the long run it was not conducive to a system of internalization and specialization of banking institutions and could result in a loss of professional staff。
Rationalization of evaluation indicators
Full-scale marketing is more common in the banking sector, although it varies from bank to bank. In an interview with a beijing newspaper journalist, an insider of a bank stated that whole-person marketing was generally directed primarily at key businesses within the bank and that there were three situations in which the bank was motivated to mobilize front-line workers in order to create a marketing climate for the entire staff; the second was in the form of incentives or activities, such as the “open-door red” deposit contest, which encouraged staff to participate; and the other was to set targets to distribute to individuals without supporting systems。
“for the time being, most of the last of these regulations is prohibited”, as described by the above-mentioned internal bankers, some of the bank deposit marketing criteria are too high or unreasonable to be set, but they are simply given to the entire staff, without the provision of ancillary products, channels or marketing training, or even punitive measures, which are detrimental to the motivation of the staff and increase the burden on first-line workers。
According to a previous survey by beijing business press, in order to avoid wage, performance and risk deductions under pressure from the “open-door red” indicator, some bankers chose to perform the examination by paying their own cash “back-to-back”, swapping between bankers or brokering the purchase of indicators from third parties。
However, it has been pointed out by industry sources that, in an increasingly competitive banking environment, it is difficult to completely ban whole-person marketing, and it is therefore particularly important to rationalize marketing indicators and programmes. Intra-bankers suggested that non-market sector employees should be involved in marketing in a manner that encourages, rather than imposes evaluation targets or penalties. At the same time, care should be taken to involve employees in risk positions in back-office operations in marketing and to avoid the use of their positions to perform marketing tasks。
The chief researcher of the union, tung xue, stated that the bank should balance business development and risk prevention between the “open-door red” phase and the usual, deal with short-term and long-term benefits, and that the assessment of branch offices and performance indicators should be scientifically sound and allow grass-roots institutions and staff “to jump up enough”. At the same time, grass-roots institutions and staff need to be aware of and hold to the bottom line in order to meet their targets in a legally compliant manner。
