Japan Post Bank Co. and Japan Post Insurance Co. are considering cutting their workforce by a total of about 1,700 people over the three years through fiscal 2020, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The move is aimed at coping with difficulties in fund management amid extremely low interest rates and intensifying competition among financial institutions in response to the spread of fintech, or financial services using information technology.
Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance, both affiliated with Japan Post Holdings Co., plan to trim personnel costs through such measures as reducing their number of new hires in stages. They also intend to expand their use of IT and AI, to make their administrative work more efficient.
Japan Post Bank plans to cut about 1,200 jobs from its current 18,000 employees. Specifically, it will cut 2,000 jobs while hiring about 800 salespersons in charge of investment trusts, to strengthen its sales capabilities.
The bank's goverment bond operating profits -- its main revenue source -- decreased to 470.2 billion yen for the April-December period in 2017, down 23 percent from the same period last year, making its financial situation increasingly difficult.
Japan Post Bank has introduced an automated processing system by digitizing documents to streamline the workflow at a saving business center that manages saving accounts. It is considering introducing AI for the operations of its call center, which handles inquiries about postal saving services from staff at post office counters.
Japan Post Insurance plans to reduce its 10,000 employees by about 500 people. Specifically, it will cut 1,000 jobs first and then hire 500 salespeople in charge of insurance and other products.
Japan Post Insurance posted ordinary revenue (sales) of about 6 trillion yen in its consolidated settlement of accounts for the April-December period in 2017, down 7.7 percent from the same period last year. Since last spring, the company has introduced AI to review insurance claims as well as to operate a call center that responds to customers' inquiries. It plans to expand the scope of its AI use to other services as well.
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