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Our reporter Tian Xianghua is from Shanghai
On the 4th, Shanghai Xuhui District Court formally accepted the case of Shanghai citizen Deng Weijie suing the bank for inter-bank inquiry charges.
From June 1 this year, the four major state-owned commercial banks and the Bank of Communications began to charge 0.3 yuan for each inter-bank inquiry of bank card ATM. The next day, Huang Xiaohua, a deputy to the National People's Congress, submitted an urgent proposal to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to suspend the collection
Fees. Subsequently, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress replied that the proposal had been forwarded to the CBRC, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Audit Office for study and handling. According to the procedure, the results will be submitted to her within three months.
However, before the above three departments gave formal opinions, Deng Weijie, a Shanghai citizen, filed a lawsuit to the court on the charge of inter-bank inquiry. Bank of Communications, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and China UnionPay are also listed as defendants.
Deng Weijie is a user of CCB Long Card jointly issued by CCB and China UnionPay. When she was preparing to apply for a bank card in July 2003, China Construction Bank promised that it would be free of charge for both inter-bank and inter-bank inquiries. In more than two years after the card was issued, Deng Weijie did enjoy the free treatment of inter-bank inquiry.
However, Deng Weijie accidentally found that the balance of the bank card was decreasing when he was operating on the ATM of Shanghai Caohejing Sub branch of the Bank of Communications with the CCB Dragon Card on June 14 this year. Deng Weijie immediately went to the ATM of Shanghai Caohejing Development Zone Sub branch of ICBC for inquiry, and found that the balance of the bank card was still decreasing. She then asked the staff of ICBC and learned that the inter-bank inquiry had started to charge a handling fee of 0.3 yuan for each transaction. The inquiry fees she just received have been directly deducted from the ATM by Bank of Communications and ICBC as the agent banks of China Construction Bank. Through the detailed statement, Deng Weijie found that the inter-bank inquiry fees deducted on that day totaled 1.5 yuan.
Deng Weijie said that when handling cards, CCB claimed that both inter-bank inquiry and bank inquiry were free of charge. CCB never told or reminded her that she might charge inter-bank inquiry fees for bank cards in the future, nor did it mention the charges in the bank card regulations and card handling contracts. The four defendants, without informing her, negotiating with her and obtaining her consent, suddenly charged the plaintiff an inter-bank inquiry service fee, which was obviously a breach of contract.
Wu Dong, Deng Weijie's attorney, said to the First Business Daily yesterday: "Bank of Communications, ICBC and China Construction Bank were originally competitive commercial banks, but they colluded with China UnionPay on the issue of inter-bank inquiry fees, forming a price alliance, which is extremely unreasonable." Moreover, China UnionPay was founded by these banks, 4. The defendant set inquiry charges and manipulated prices without authorization, which was an act of unfair competition, violated the provisions of Article 14 of the Price Law of China, and violated the property rights and interests of the plaintiff and other bank card users.
Wu Dong also said that Article 50 of the Commercial Bank Law stipulates that commercial banks shall charge service fees in accordance with regulations when they handle business and provide services. The banking regulatory authority under the State Council (the CBRC) and the People's Bank of China shall, according to the division of duties, formulate the charging items and standards respectively in conjunction with the competent pricing department under the State Council. In accordance with the provisions of Article 18 of the Price Law and Item 2 of Article 7 of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Service Prices of Commercial Banks, the CBRC or the People's Bank of China in conjunction with the competent pricing department of the State Council shall determine whether and how much fees are allowed to be charged for inter-bank inquiries, and the four defendants shall not have the right to formulate and collect the handling fees for inter-bank inquiries without authorization.
Deng Weijie requested the court in the complaint to order the four defendants to stop the infringement, cancel the inter-bank inquiry charges for bank cards, and return their inter-bank inquiry fees of RMB 1.5.
Although the charge for each inquiry is 0.3 yuan, according to the statistics of UnionPay, as of the end of last year, there were 920 million bank debit cards in China. If each debit card was queried across banks every month, 3.3 billion yuan would enter the accounts of UnionPay and major banks in a year.
As of press time, several major banks and China UnionPay have not received the notice from the court nor made a statement on this.
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