China’s securities regulator and central bank cut the budget allocation for employee salaries in 2023, following reforms ordered as part of a broader drive to reduce income disparity.
The 2023 budget report for the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) was released on Friday, while the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) budget report was released in late March.
The CSRC’s budget for total staff salaries and benefits dropped to 170.3 million yuan ($24.64 million), 17 per cent lower than in 2022, according to Reuters calculations based on the CSRC’s budget report.
The PBOC’s budget for salaries and stipends was 10.6 per cent lower at 21 billion yuan ($3.04 billion), Reuters calculations showed.
Analysts said central bank and CSRC staff had faced possible pay cuts as a result of the reforms to financial regulatory bodies announced in March that had called for their staff’s pay to be put on par with public servants. The reforms also envisaged a 5 per cent reduction in staff levels.
Wages at leading Chinese investment banks have also been trending downward amid a slowing economy and the government’s “common prosperity” rhetoric.
China’s anti-corruption body in February pledged to eliminate notions of a “financial elite” and “parity with the West” as well as hedonism and the excessive pursuit of money and “high-end tastes”.
