By Wang Zhenghua (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-21 10:51

A new program allowing bank users to make deposits, withdrawals and transfers at any banking outlet through a universal payment system could be undermined by public reluctance to pay the high fees associated with it.

According to an online survey conducted by Web portal sina.com, about 95 percent of the more than 86,000 responders said the fee, which most banks involved mandate to be 1 percent of the transaction amount, was too much. Many other netizens posted similar opinions on other websites.

Many said they would probably not use the service, because they were averse to paying the up-to-200-yuan fees charged by some banks. They said they would rather stand for hours in long lines at banking outlets and go through the trouble of moving money from bank to bank.

Foreign banks - at a disadvantage because of the scarcity of their outlets - are not covered by the program initiated by the central bank, because they use different operating systems for transactions.

Chinese banks launched the program nationwide on Monday in hopes of shortening lines at banking outlets. Under the new regime, customers can deposit, withdraw from, transfer from, and check the balance of, their accounts at any outlet included in the program.

Chinese banks had earlier piloted many measures to address mounting complains from customers frustrated with waiting for hours in long lines for service. However, none of the previously tried measures proved satisfactory.