| Q&As on merger of small RMB personal demand deposit accounts I. Why shall customers be suggested to merge small RMB personal demand deposit accounts? In a long term, you may have opened several bank accounts in ICBC, some of which are left long unused or seldom used, and these low-efficient or inefficient accounts have grown in number after many years' accumulation and occupied large computer system resources. ICBC has to invest substantive resources each year to operate and store these low-efficient or inefficient accounts, which not only considerably wastes social resources, but also increases the bank's operating costs and reduces service efficiency. If initiatively merging or canceling those long unused or seldom used small accounts, you will benefit from it at least in two aspects. First, you will be free from the trouble of keeping multiple deposit books and multiple bank cards. Second, you will be able to activate the balance of funds in those long dead accounts and pool the petty money into a considerable sum of funds so as to efficiently increase use efficiency of funds. As far as ICBC is concerned, if you merge those long unused and seldom used small accounts in your hand, you will save large computer system resources, directly reduce maintenance costs, increase operating efficiency of computers, and improve service efficiency and service level. Therefore, we suggest you timely merge or cancel those long unused or seldom used small RMB demand deposit accounts so that you can efficiently and reasonably manage bank accounts and pool long unused petty money, and we can increase efficiency of the computer system of ICBC and provide better services for you. II. What is a small RMB personal demand deposit account? A small deposit account refers to an account with a daily average deposit balance of less than 300 Yuan in ICBC. The specific calculating method is summing up daily deposit balances of an account within a quarter, then divides it by the total number of deposit days (calculated by 90 days for the total number of days in each quarter), and thus arrive at an average number. For example, if the balances of an account in consecutive three days are 100 Yuan, 200 Yuan, and 0 Yuan respectively, then the average balance of this account is 100 Yuan, by analogy. ICBC will automatically calculate the daily average deposit balance of an account in a quarter through the computer system. If the period of deposit is less than one quarter, then it will be calculated by the actual number of deposit days. III. Will ICBC charge any account service fees for small deposit accounts? For this or that reason, most customers have multiple personal accounts, and many customers open personal accounts but hereon never use them any more, which is not only inconvenient, but also unsafe, and may also directly lead to an increase in the number of personal accounts at the bank. The bank has to invest substantive resources to maintain these accounts each year, which not only considerably wastes social resources, but also increases the bank's operating costs and reduces service efficiency. With deepening of domestic banking reform in future, commercial banks shall fully go into market-oriented operations, be responsible for both customers and shareholders, and make intensive management. In the previous time period, the banking regulatory authority begun to approve that commercial banks charge appropriate account service fees for small deposit accounts, and thought it was an exploration for commercial banks to optimize account structures by price means and was of significance for improving the service level of banking business, advancing the healthy development of state-owned banks, promoting increase in the use efficiency of overall social resources, and bettering the financing philosophy of residents and the financial ecology. As a result, we also think that it is a future trend for commercial banks to charge account service fees for small deposit accounts. Therefore, we suggest you merge or cancel those unused and seldom used small accounts according to actual conditions of your own bank accounts. ICBC will also give full consideration to serving customers, facilitating customer demands, trying most to improve working efficiency in terms of process flow and business processing, and helping you merge and cancel small accounts. ICBC will also consider taking such price means as charging small RMB demand deposit accounts at an appropriate time and urge customers to initiatively merge or cancel small accounts. However, it shall be specially noted that ICBC will not charge only for the purpose of charge. ICBC plans to allow a reasonable time for helping customers merge small accounts and try most to reduce the number of small accounts, and expects that there will be only a small number of small accounts when charging account service fees for small accounts in future. IV. Which facilities are provided by ICBC for facilitating customers to merge small deposit accounts? To facilitate you to merge small deposit accounts, ICBC shall provide the following facilities after elaborate preparations: First, you can choose to conduct the procedures of merging or canceling accounts at any business office of ICBC in the city where the account is opened. Second, prior to June 20, 2006, any customer conducting the loss-reporting procedures of small RMB demand deposit accounts at our business office shall be exempted from any commission for loss-reporting. Third, hundreds of million accounts in 11 classes will be free from merger or cancellation and will not be charged any account service fees for the moment. These accounts include any demand account among elite club accounts; peony traffic card account; deposit account used for redemption of personal loans; multiple-currency comprehensive account with a balance in the foreign currency account (home & foreign currency all-in-one book, peony international debit card, foreign exchange trading account etc); peony quasi credit card, peony credit card, and peony international credit card accounts; agency minimum living standard security deposit account; agency social security deposit account (pension fund account and pension insurance, unemployment insurance, and medical insurance account); account used for purchasing funds and RMB assets management products, registered T-bond account, bank-insurance link account, bank-securities link and bank-securities transfer account; agency salary payment account, and account used for batch withholding of water charges, power charge, gas rates, and telephone fees etc; housing public accumulation fund account; and personal Internet banking e-card account. The total number of these 11 classes of accounts without the necessity of merger exceeds 100 million, most of which belong to those accounts closely related to your life and work, and you can continue to use them as normal without the necessity of merger. V. How shall I go to ICBC to conduct the procedures of merging and canceling accounts? First, to improve efficiency and avoid wrongly canceling accounts, please all-roundly sort out your ICBC accounts (deposit books and bank cards) in hand or at home, carefully check the purpose of each account, and assure that the to-be-merged or to-be-cancelled accounts do not belong to the 11 classes of accounts listed above. Second, please go to any business office of ICBC in the city where the account is opened during the business time of bank to conduct the procedures of merging accounts. At the time of conducting the loss-reporting procedures, you shall carry your valid identity certificates, including identity card, passport, household registration book, military officer's certificate, police officer's certificate, soldier's certificate, home-visiting certificate, and temporary identity card. VI. Could customer conduct the procedures of merging and canceling accounts through Internet Banking or Telephone Banking? Yes, ICBC has launched the service of canceling small account through E-banking. Customers could self-help cancel small accounts through Internet Banking with certificate, Internet Banking deposit book version or Telephone Banking. VII. Matters concerning business operations 1. If the demand account or the bank card of a card-linked small demand deposit account (peony money-link card in the mode of ＾deposit book + card￣) gets lost, can I conduct the procedures of canceling accounts? Yes. You can carry the deposit book or the card to conduct the procedures of merging or canceling small accounts. 2. If the password for a deposit book or bank card gets lost, can I conduct it? If the account or password for your deposit book or bank card gets lost, please carry your valid identity certificate (including identity card, passport, household registration book, military officer's certificate, police officer's certificate, soldier's certificate, home-visiting certificate, and temporary identity card) and go to ICBC to conduct the loss-reporting procedures then and there before June 20, 2006. It shall be specially mentioned that during this period ICBC will charge no commission for loss-reporting. 3. Can I conduct the procedures of merging or canceling accounts on behalf of other persons? Yes. In particular, you shall carry the deposit book or bank card and go to the nearest business office of ICBC, input the password as instructed by the staff, and conduct the procedures of merging or canceling accounts if only the password is authenticated without fault. 4. If I do not know the password, can I conduct the procedures of canceling or merging small accounts on behalf of other persons? Yes. Please carry both the deposit book or the bank card and the principal's and the account owner's valid identity certificates and go to the nearest business office of ICBC to conduct the procedures of canceling any small accounts with a balance of less than 300 Yuan. 5. Can I merge or cancel small accounts opened at business offices of ICBC in other cities? You can assign an agent in other cities to help you conduct the procedures of canceling any small account with a balance of less than 300 Yuan, and the agent shall carry both the deposit book or the bank card and the agent's and the account owner's valid identity certificates and go to business office of ICBC to conduct the procedures of canceling accounts, and then remit the money to your demand account at the local business office of ICBC through " remittance express". 6. My accounts have been designated for disbursements of power charges (telephone fee, water charges, gas rates, etc.), and generally only have a balance of one or two hundred Yuan, do they need to be merged? Whether will they be charged? They do not need to be merged, and will not be charged for the moment. 7. Are there any charges for conducting the procedures of canceling small accounts? No. There are no charges for loss-reporting of deposit book, money-link card or password. 8. For which usage small accounts designated shall be given special attention at the time of merger? Please refer to the 11 classes of accounts listed in the announcement. BACK |
