Banks responsible for protecting deposits

A resident in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei province, who reportedly deposited about 10.8 million yuan ($1.74 million) at a local branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, recently found there was only 124 yuan left in her account. Several other people claimed they too had lost money they deposited with the bank. ICBC responded that a staff member stole the money by doctoring their accounts and it is not responsible for that. Comments:

Banks are supposed to manage risks; the fact that a staff member could steal money from customers' accounts means ICBC has failed in its duty. What it now needs to do is apologize and compensate the victims to avoid damaging its public image. The State has lowered the threshold for foreign-ventured banks to enter China, and the monopoly of State-owned banks will soon be broken, they will soon know how important a good image is.

ifeng.com, May 20

Similar incidents have been reported many times and every time the banks have tried to pass the buck. Even if it is one of their employees that stole the money as they claim, they should still be held accountable for their lack of supervision and safeguards. If they continue trying to avoid their responsibilities, they will lose the trust of their customers.

People's Daily, via Sina micro blog, May 19

When depositors put money into ICBC accounts, a contract relationship is formed, in which ICBC is responsible for the security of the money. No matter who steals the money, the bank is ultimately responsible as guardian of the accounts and it should compensate the depositors for their losses. It is nonsense for ICBC to push the responsibility on to a member of staff and the victims could well file a lawsuit.

Qi Sheng, a Shijiazhuang-based lawyer, May 19