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December 24, 2011

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NDRC checks on random fees

The National Development and Reform Commission will crack down on random fee collection by banks next year, a senior official said yesterday.

The NDRC has discovered that banks have been randomly charging fees to small companies which applied for loans after it investigated the practice in 11 provinces and regions this year, said Peng Sen, deputy head of the commission.

The government will help small and medium firms hard hit by financial strain and high operating costs by strictly investigating and punishing banks that continue to charge illegal fees, Peng said at a meeting on national price supervision and anti-monopoly in Beijing.

"The commission is going to work on problems like banks' bundling charges for loans and mandatory service charges as our priority in 2012," he said.

The NDRC will send investigation teams to 31 provinces and regions nationwide to check the operation of commercial banks.

A probe in the second half of this year to determine if banks charge personal banking account customers for resetting their PIN saw the NDRC impose fines of 5.8 million yuan on Citic Bank, the Industrial Bank and the Postal Savings Bank of China.

Since July 1, the government has banned banks from charging 34 kinds of service fees to customers, including for PIN reset. Some banks, however, continue to charge customers 10 yuan (US$1.57) by renaming the fee as a charge on reporting lost PIN.

The NDRC also said it will continue to investigate random fee collection in the medical sector next year. The national price check of medical services, which started this year, "can be carried out until November next year if necessary," Peng said.

He also revealed the NDRC will conduct checks on electricity and coal prices from January 1.




 

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