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