At financials (and sometimes sales departments), you have, from most junior to senior: 1. Associate 2. Analyst 3. Vice Presidents 4. Directors (MD - Managing Director)
Whereas in software/tech, it's usually Directors that are subordinate to Vice Presidents.
I have seen Product Management go this route. Seen Senior Directors with 5 or less, sometimes 0, direct reports.
Personally I once needed[1] to have private, personal bank account opening, vetted officially "by board of the bank", but probably through similar council of seemingly overinflated job titles, but whose job titles included appropriate legal responsibility for the action taken.
[1] Run of the mill personnel could not even get answer why, ultimately it turned out due to various legal requirements someone with high job title had to sign off on "We know this customer and verified they are so and so"
Sometimes companies do weird things to avoid rules or laws, having 9k VPs sounds like they would be doing something similar.