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

This high charge by the "big four" has aroused wide public concern. A survey conducted by the Web portal sina.com showed about 95 percent of the more than 86,000 respondents said the fee was too high.

The financial supervision department of the People's Bank of China responded to Zhang Ming's accusation of financial monopoly by saying that "the commercial banks were participating in the program according to their own decisions. The central bank had not set the fees and does not have the right to intervene their daily commercial business".

Admittedly, the commercial banks cannot be forced to participate in the program, but this fact does not justify the supervising authorities not setting the standard of fees.

Currently, the "big four" agree with each other by charging 1 percent for the new procedures, while nearly all share holding banks collect only 0.1 percent, one-tenth of the previous amount.

The lower fee does not give the share holding banks any advantages in market competition.

With a monopoly position in China's financial market, the "big four" have extensive outlets and networks which enhance their competitive edge.

As a result, they are less concerned about inadequate outlets to serve their clients.

Under the new program, the share holding banks, which are smaller in size and have fewer outlets, would benefit if their clients could use the outlets of the "big four" to access their accounts.

Thus, the new program is actually weakening the position of the "big four" in competition with the smaller banks. Worse, it is like asking the "big four" to put their most important resources into the hands of their competitors.

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