The Booming Of The Service Fee In Banking: An Analysis Of Its Validity And The Conceivable Policy In Legislation

In the recent two years, most of the banks in china commenced to charge fees against traditional service, such as the debit card fee, the ATM fee, and the monthly charge against the account failing to meet the minimum balance requirement. The booming of the service fee led to a great deal of lawsuits and the wide discussion around the country. As a response to this social problem the author analyzes from two aspects: the validity of the charging and the conceivable policy in future legislation.For reasons the possible issue of monopolization in charging is not included in this article. The analysis begins with the multiple legal relationships between the bank and its customer, and focuses on whether the charging has breached the rights of the customers. As a result the author finds that generally the charging is rightful no matter on the basis of contract, customer protection or the administrative statute. In addition, the problem would come to an end that people has to hold several banking cards at the same with the development of retail payment system.However, the cost of financial service is rising and the negative affection towards the low-income estate would come along. It is time for the legislator to give response to the coming issue of fee charging and the basic financial service. In principle, the law should not intervene in the banks'price fixing, but it has been a forceful policy reason in legislation in abroad to guarantee the availability to basic financial service. Our active law has already intervened in the fee charging, in the way of limiting the price. Although this strategy has its rationality in today's China, its defect is obvious. The legislator should do some investigation on the accessibility of basic financial service, and consider intervening in while it is too expensive to afford for part of the people. Under this policy the legislator should no long constrain the pricing universally rather than bring the basic financial service into welfare, and provide it to the people out of the service. Meanwhile, the government should enhance the corporation with the private department; encourage them to explore the market for the low-incoming people, to raise the level of financial service generally.