BEIJING - Chinese ministries released rules on Friday regulating service prices of commercial lenders in order to solicit public opinion, according to a statement published by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the People's Bank of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The new rules drew a line between basic services that will be priced under government guidelines and those applying to market-based pricing, and requiring banks to price all the services they offer to clients in an open and clear way.

Prices of settlement in yuan will be put under government control, according to the statement.

As for prices oriented by the market, all the pricing decisions must be made at headquarters level, instead of in branches, it said.

"If a commercial bank decides to change prices, it must notify customers by publishing the new prices at its outlets and websites three months before the effective date, and should inform the clients through phone calls, messages, emails, contracts and other ways if necessary," said Zhang Qian, an official at CBRC.

And if a lender wants to add new items to charge customers, it needs to release the information to the public one month earlier.

Ni Hong, an official at the NDRC, said most of the services among banks will still be priced by the lenders themselves in accordance with market fluctuations, and the official intervention on pricing aims only to guarantee citizens' rights to get access to basic banking services.