China cuts bank card fees

BEIJING -- China will cut fees on purchases made through bank cards from Sept. 6 on and save businesses about 7.4 billion yuan (1.16 billion US dollars) each year. The move will not affect consumers.

Bank service fees will go down more than half, and will be different for debit and credit cards. Fees on debit cards will be no more than 0.35 percent of the total deal, while those on credit cards will be no more than 0.45 percent, according to a statement issued jointly by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the People's Bank of China on Friday. Previously, banks could charge up to 0.9 percent as service fees.

Among other fees, network service fees will be no more than 0.065 percent of the total deal. Fees collected by institutions which handle the deals will be decided by the market, namely between the institutions and the businesses themselves.

Certain businesses will enjoy preferential treatment: non-profit medical institutions, for example, will enjoy zero bank service fees and no network service fees.

After the changes, the NDRC expects total fees to shrink by up to 63 percent for the catering sector and nearly 40 percent for department stores.

"Consumers spent 700 million yuan on bank cards in restaurants last year, and fees hit nearly 8 million yuan. The new policy should save us at least 5 million yuan each year," said Dang Lifang, finance manager of Meizhou Dongpo company, which runs more than 100 restaurants.

Bank card fees are usually levied differently based on categories, including the catering and entertainment sector, the general businesses, businesses involving with people's livelihoods and non-profit organizations.

About 29 billion deals were made through bank cards in 2015, involving 55 trillion yuan.

China has more than 5.4 billion bank cards in use, with more than 16 million merchants linked to the bank card network using more than 20 million point of sale machines.