Banks shun policy beneficial to customers

A bank employee prepares bank notes. The State Council moved to scrap a rule that caps lending by commercial banks at 75 percent of their deposits, a measure that will increase the supply of cash in the financial system. [Photo/China Daily]

A policy entitling each customer to a small-amount deposit account exempt from a bank's annual operating fees was introduced on Aug 1 last year. However, no bank has taken the initiative to inform its customers of the policy, and the application procedures are unnecessarily complicated, as customers must take their ID cards to the same bank where they opened the existing account to submit the application. Comments:

If it was a policy allowing the banks to collect a new fee, all of the banks would have enthusiastically carried out the policy. There are many ways to exempt the fees. It takes only a click of the mouse. How can the banks turn a deaf ear to the central government notice? It is because the notice has no teeth even if it is already a hard-won achievement, and nobody has to take responsibility for not carrying it out.

Dahe Daily, Aug 5

The banking regulatory authority should punish the banks that do not implement the policy. Otherwise, other policies, especially those beneficial to customers, will also become just empty talk. The authority should take the policy to exempt the fees as an opportunity to comb through all fees collected by the banks and make them transparent to the public.

People.com.cn, Aug 5

According to the policy, the annual fees will be exempted if the customers apply for them to be waived. This is obviously a loophole that can be easily used by the banks. If the authority really wants to bring benefits to the people and promote the reform of China's banking industry. It should avoid such vague language.

Eastday.com, Aug 5

You cannot wake up a person who pretends to be asleep. The audacity and irresponsibility of the banks are not their fault, but caused by the monopoly they enjoy in the market. If private banks and foreign banks were competing with the State-owned banks, no bank would neglect their customers to such a degree. Before such competition comes, the government and banking industry watchdog must supervise the banks so they behave themselves.

Xi'an Daily, Aug 5