OREANDA-NEWS. April 12, 2012. A few days ago, China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) issued the Circular on Regulation of Non-standard Operation of Financial Institutions in the Banking Industry, deploying the special regulation against “non-standard operation” problems of the banking system, reported the press-centre of Industrial Bank.

Focusing on credit management and service charges, two areas relating to the national economy and people's livelihoods, CBRC requires financial institutions and the regulatory authorities at all levels to substantially push forward regulation and control and facilitate the compliant operation and steady development of the banking industry so as to serve the real economy in an effective way. All commercial banks took active actions one after another to enforce the regulatory requirements in the circular. Industrial Bank (IB) made continuous innovation in the area of strengthening the standard management of service charges, and has established a complete system for the management of service charges.

Improving the institutional system to regulate service charges in terms of mechanisms
IB not only released the “Price Management Methods of Industrial Bank” applicable to the whole bank, but also further adjusted the regulations on the management of service charges. It released the “Implementation Regulations of Industrial Bank on the Management of Retail Service Prices” and “Implementation Regulations of Industrial Bank on the Management of Corporate Service Prices” as the operation principles of business outlets at all levels across the whole bank regarding service charges.

In order to further standardize the handling of complaints regarding service charges, IB further revised the “Methods of Industrial Bank for the Management of Complaints from Customers”, specifying that the customer complaint telephone 95561 must be made accessible 24 hours a day; that the persons-in-charge of outlets must publicize the complaint and consultation telephone number and make it accessible 24 hours a day; and that all branches must set up a notebook for customer opinions and a complaint email and mailbox. The bank also stipulated the time limit for handling complaints and entered performance in handling complaints into the annual assessment of branches. At the same time, the bank set up a special service quality office at the Retail Banking Management Head Office in the Headquarters, which is responsible for service charges, customer complaints and quality improvement.

Additionally, in combination with the business skill competition of counter clerks and hall managers that is held every year, IB also takes regulations and provisions on service charges and handling of complaints as important contents for investigation, so as to promote officers at the front line to enhance their service awareness and strengthen standard business operation.

Enhancing system functions to regulate service charges technically
In order to avoid business officers in branches from misinterpreting the charging policies and making errors in the process of actual operation and further causing flaws in charging behavior, IB further improved its business flow for the management of charges upon upgrading the core business system in 2011. The system will calculate and collect charges according to the preset charging conditions and charging rates, for instance, when customers handle common business such as bank card, deposit book, and transfer and remittance, etc. Since the new system was put into operation in October 2011, this function has helped to prevent operation risks effectively and avoid miss -charges and excessive charges resulting from man-made errors.

Pricing in a reasonable way to protect the interests of customers sufficiently
IB has always adhered to the principle of low service charges. In terms of charging items, the bank has always followed the pricing principle “price matching quality”, computing all service costs and expenses in a reasonable and objective way and giving consideration to bearing capacity and consumption habits of customers. Through technical improvement and business innovation, IB deploys resources in a reasonable manner to provide customers with products and services of which the prices match the quality and bring them substantial benefits and efficiency. Based on a differentiated pricing strategy, the bank also tries to guide customers to use self-service channels, which are convenient and have no charges or low charges, instead of the conventional over-the-counter channel, so as to reduce the time cost, improve business handling efficiency and enhance customer service experience.

Respecting the rights of customers to know and choose with full disclosure
Following the principle of open and transparent service prices, IB intensifies its announcement and directions on charges, specifying the price of each service. To respect the rights of consumers to know and choose, IB publishes the list of charging rates at prominent positions in the halls of outlets and self-service banking service sites and on self-service machines to facilitate customers to check information at any time. In addition, the bank also gives automatic reminders to customers on the charging rates through the internet banking system. In this way, IB fully performs its notification obligations to ensure that customers fully understand the charging rates and choose on their own.

Extending the coverage of charging concessions and practicing corporate social responsibility
With the increasingly diversified products and services, IB has further enlarged the scope of free-of-charge and low-charge services via exempted or reduced service charges or preferential policies for special targets such as low-income groups, disadvantaged groups, small and mini enterprises, agricultural projects related to farmers, agriculture and rural areas, and social public-welfare organizations.

Apart from the free-of-charge services provided by the regulatory authorities, IB autonomously increased 59 free-of-charge services closely relating to the daily life of retail customers, including exemption from personal account management fees for various functional accounts such as for the wage accounts, pension accounts, accounts for minimum living standard guarantee, medical insurance accounts, unemployment insurance accounts and housing provi sion fund accounts opened by agreement, and exemption from fees for opening and renewing debit cards, non-local intra-bank withdrawals and ATM deposits, non-local intra-bank transfers, intra-city common intern-bank transfers via the internet/mobile/telephone banking system, domestic inter-bank inquiries via ATMs, loss report for debit cards, loss report for certificate treasury bonds, and loss report for deposit books, etc.