On April 27, 2017, a message from Industrial Bank (IB) tells that the sorting and improvement of service price list has been almost completed. 20 chargeable items are expected to be deleted and some unclear charges will be further explained in the future.
At the beginning this year, the transfer and remittance through the mobile corporate online banking was made free of charge, which offered benefits to and facilitated enterprises to initiate and approve transfers, and has raise great concern from the market. This act corresponds to the supervisory policies of lean charging implemented in recent years as well as more than 60 free-of-charge items closely related to customers.
Service Price List: Lean and Clear
Now IB almost completed the sorting and improvement of the service price list. Some unclear past chargeable items will be further explained and made clear in the future.
For example, as for the item of “precious broker fee”, the former description is “to provide customers with channels and related settlement, risk management and other services to trade precious metal in the Shanghai Gold Exchange”, and the changed description is “to provide agency services for institutional customers to undertake precious metal trading, delivery settlement, leasing, pledging and other fund settlement activities in the Shanghai Gold Exchange in the capacity of the financial member of Shanghai Gold Exchange”.
After the sorting and improvement, the service price list is expected to reduce 20 items.
Before that, IB has exempted the handling charge of allopatric cash withdrawal, deposit and transfer as per supervisory requirements. For example, the individual allopatric OTC deposit in the same bank originally charged 0.1% of the deposited amount per count, capped at RMB 20 (or equivalent foreign currency) with the minimum charge of RMB 1 (temporarily free for deposit in branch operations in Fujian Province). From December 2016, this service is free of charge.
In addition to the exemption of partial service charges as required by the authority, IB has insisted on the principle of “reducing expense and surrendering profit” in recent years. More than 60 chargeable service items closely related to customers are now free, including activation and renewal of magnetic stripe debit card, allopatric ATM withdrawal and deposit, allopatric transfer inside bank, domestic ATM interbank inquiry as well as reporting the loss of debit card / bankbook / deposit receipt. Meanwhile, IB has also canceled some service charges for corporate customers, including information inquiry and information business service fee, product inquiry and service fee, routine financial consultation fee and etc. For micro- and small-sized enterprises, in addition to the exemption of the above-mentioned charges, IB also exempted the legal person account overdraft liability fee, bank acceptance risk exposure management fee, loan intention and credit certification fee of corporate customers as required by the supervising authority.
Transfer via Mobile Corporate Online Banking Now Free
Under the trend of strengthening financial support for enterprises, beginning in 2017, IB has added another free service - free transfer via mobile corporate online banking, which offers benefits to and facilitates enterprises to initiate and approve transfer business. Moreover, IB also provides a bluetooth network shield applicable to both the website version and mobile version of corporate online banking for the purpose of safeguarding payment.
“We need to transfer money every day. We used to operate on the website through a computer. Now we just need to bring the IB bluetooth network shield to generate a transfer instruction or approve and authorize a transfer instruction anywhere anytime. We don’t have bring a computer for business trips, so convenient!” Said by the financial director of a coal group in Shanxi Province when talking about the bluetooth network shield for corporate online banking, “And it is all free no matter I transfer to another IB account or an account of other banks, no matter to local accounts or remote accounts!”
IB is the first in the industry to release the bluetooth network shield of this kind, which is known as the “guardian” of online transfer. This product pre-configures the digital certificate of China Financial Certificate Authority (CFCA), making transaction information “visible upon signature” and effectively preventing transaction hijack and transaction manipulation. When a customer is transferring money, the transaction information will show up in the display integrated in the bluetooth network shield. The transaction will not reach the back stage of the bank for processing unless the customers confirms the information and presses the Confirm button.
More Transparent Information Disclosure
IB has been making the service price more transparent during recent years.
IB posts the latest price list in eye-catching positions on its official website and all operations. Front-line employees must clearly communicate the charging standards to customers on the counter. For customers receiving service via ATM, online banking, mobile banking and other self-help channels, the system has to be able to automatically indicate the charging standards of specific business for customers to choose.
Meanwhile, IB also strictly complies with the price list. As for items whose charges are prohibited by the government or required to be paid by the bank, all operating agencies are forbidden to charge customers. For example, from 2011, it is required that all operating agencies are prohibited to collect commitment fee, fund management fee on the loans for micro- and small-sized enterprises. It is restricted to collect financial consultation fee and inquiry fee on the loans for micro- and small-sized enterprises. The house mortgage registration fee shall be borne by the operating agency and shall not be transferred to customers. The charging of items priced by the government shall be consistent with the charging standards. Any operation agency is prohibited to arbitrarily charge for undisclosed items.
As expressed by Li Jian, the general manager of the Planning Financial Department of IB Head Office, IB has a tradition of lawful and legal operation. In recent years, IB has completely fulfilled the supervisory requirements on service charges, kept improving the charging management framework and conducted irregular on-site inspection on information disclosure of all outlets. IB plans to organize another round of on-site inspection on branch offices in the near future, so as to constantly improve the standardization of service charges, practically serve the entity economy and improve customer experience.