By Ma Hongman (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-03 11:17

There has been a lot of debate and news since the launch on November 19 of a national program by Chinese banks allowing customers to deposit, withdraw, transfer, and check the balance of their accounts at any banking outlet.

Many have praised the program because it allows customers to perform all these tasks to their bank accounts at the outlet of one bank even if they opened their accounts in another. So they are able to choose the less busy outlets or the ones closer to them thereby saving time and the trouble of waiting in long queues.

However, there are differing opinions, most stemming from the fees associated with these new procedures.

On November 23, Zhang Ming, secretary-general of the Beijing Consumers' Association, said the fees were set at such a high level that the State-owned commercial banks were probably trying to manipulate fees because of their monopoly position and were therefore harming market competition.

Zhang's charge reveals the core of competition among financial institutions in China, and it is necessary to analyze opinions about the new program.

The program was initiated by the People's Bank of China, the central bank, in the hope of shortening the long customer queues at bank outlets. It was also to improve the overall efficiency of bank services and share resources among different banks.

This well-meant intention has regrettably been greeted by market players' concern about their own commercial interests.

The four State-owned commercial banks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and the China Construction Bank, have universally imposed heavy fees for their services on accounts originally opened in other banks.

According to the stipulations, clients have to pay the "big four" 1 percent of the sum they deposit, withdraw or transfer from their accounts in other banks. And the sum involved must be less than 30,000 yuan ($3,957) each time.

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