Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) chairman Sean Chen (陳冲) yesterday voiced support for local banks to supplement revenues by charging maintenance fees on savings accounts with low balances.
Chen made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee after some foreign banks said they would start charging a maintenance fee of NT$85 per month on accounts with deposits lower than NT$10,000.
GOOD IDEA
“If I were the banks, I would probably do the same to enhance operation efficiency,” Chen told reporters.
But “banks should also address the ethical aspect of the issue to avoid hurting their credibility,” Chen said.
Banks operate on the public’s trust, and to that end, they have a responsibility, he said, without elaborating.
Chen said domestic banks were not restricted from charging account maintenance fees and his agency would look into the feasibility of imposing extra charges in the near future.
The FSC head also mentioned that domestic banks could consider lowering their interest rates as much as possible on larger savings accounts to discourage large savings that cost the banks in interest payouts.
POSTAL SAVINGS
Earlier in the meeting, Chen suggested turning the nation’s postal savings system into a bank so that it could not turn away corporate savings.
The top financial regulator is floating the idea after the Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) stopped accepting time deposits from companies.
Chen said the postal savings system, created to encourage individuals to save, differed from a bank and was subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
While Chen said he would communicate with the ministry on the matter, he said the solution was to transform the postal savings system into a postal savings bank so that it would fall under banking law.
Chen said he had long supported the reform, which would benefit the system’s long-term development.
To function like a bank, postal offices would have to obtain the necessary know-how and certificates to screen credit applications, Chen said.
Separately, the Ministry of Finance issued a statement saying the aggregate amount of corporate loans granted by banks with government stakes had dropped 1.11 percent to NT$10.63 trillion (US$308 billion) last month, compared with January.
The ministry attributed the drop to falling demand on the part of firms as seen in weak foreign trade volume during the same period.
Exports totaled US$24.96 billion, while imports reached US$19.89 billion in the last two months, down 37.2 percent from last year, the ministry said.
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