Domestic banks should be alerted by the popularity of foreign banks among common people, says a signed article in Dahe News. An excerpt follows:

According to a recent survey in Guangdong Province in South China, about 79.5 percent of those surveyed said they would go to foreign banks for financial services and 3.1 percent have already opened their accounts in foreign banks.

The number can be expected to climb as foreign banks are opening more outlets and allowed into the renminbi businesses.

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Domestic banks should be alarmed by the figures. The customers are showing their strong dissatisfaction with the services of Chinese banks.

The customers have seen enough of their arrogance and snobbishness.

The banks collect various fees with different names. They do not even bother to offer more detailed explanation than the sentence "We are following a global practice."

To make things worse, they are not offering better service to match the raised fees. The domestic banks need two or three days to transfer a sum to another bank while it takes only one day for foreign banks at a lower price.

Common customers have to wait for a long time before they get to the bank windows but the VIP clients are granted the privilege of being served upon their arrival. Some banks even set a price for being served before others.

All these practices are backed by the domestic banks' mind-set forged by their monopoly in the financial sector. Now is probably the time for them to pay for their arrogance as the foreign banks are quickly gaining popularity among the common people.