Fees on dormant bank accounts anger Hongkongers; banks review practices
City's lenders discuss how to deal with idle accounts that are costly to administer
Customers have complained to their banks as well as the regulator, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, that they are being charged excessive fees on accounts they seldom use.
In some cases, they say, fees and charges ate up all the money in accounts that had been dormant for several years.
"The Hong Kong Association of Banks has promoted social responsibility and encouraged its members to remove the charges on socially vulnerable groups - including the elderly, the ones relying on social welfare and the physically disabled," association chairman Benjamin Hung Pi-cheng told a press conference yesterday.
HSBC, Standard Chartered, Hang Seng Bank, Bank of East Asia and Bank of China have removed minimum charges on accounts held by such people.
"The Hong Kong Monetary Authority must be careful about handling its role in the banks' service fees, which should not be viewed as a regulatory decision as the banks have their own commercial objectives," said Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang, a deputy chief executive of the HKMA.
"The fee structure must be reasonable and transparent."
Sources familiar with the situation said the HKMA had responded to the complaints by recommending banks review their practices with respect to such accounts, with a view to lowering charges to reflect the infrequent transactions.
