China to release bank charge regulation

BEIJING - A new rule aimed to regulate service charges of Chinese commercial banks is expected to come into effect soon, according to an official from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) Wednesday.

The government is working on sorting out the charging items under each service category, and the work will be finished this week, said Yin Long, an official in charge of supervision on business innovation.

Afterwards, the government will do some internal surveys to further improve the rule, and then publish the rule together with government pricing and guidance pricing catalogues compiled by the price regulator, Yin said.

From February to March, the public were invited to give feedback on the draft of the rule which is expected to limit the amount commercial banks that can charge for their services.

Opaque and extra charging has been a major source of public complaints regarding the country's banking sector in recent years.

The draft, which was revised from an interim measure issued in 2003, had received more than 1,600 public submissions, Yin said.

The draft states that commercial banks should use multiple methods to notify clients in advance when raising service prices or introducing new charges. It also elaborates those service items that commercial banks should price clearly.