the banking theme song of "close if you want" finally "sang loudly" again in the midst of consumers' protest: after Bank of Communications first announced the announcement of cross-bank inquiry charges like asking for directions, the four major banks of China Construction, which has been ambiguous all the time, have finally clearly joined the charging camp. The four major banks began to issue fee announcements at their outlets on May 18, and will begin to charge inter-bank inquiry fees from June 1, which is the same as that of Bank of Communications, with a handling fee of 0.3 yuan per inquiry.

the news that banks are going to charge inter-bank inquiry fees has been around for more than half a year, and we have not been surprised at today's official announcement of "letting nature take its course". Because, as has always been the case with the arrogant banking style, "tough charges" have never needed a reason-although there is no basis for charging so far, although they are suspected of violating the contract Law, and although they have not gone through a hearing process; although the method of calculating the standard of charges has never been made public.

relevant statistics show that since June 2003, bank charges have increased by more than 20 items: a charge for counting change, a charge for small accounts, a charge for inter-bank withdrawals, a charge for reporting loss, an annual fee for debit cards, and a charge for exchange of change in some places, even for large withdrawals. Now, cross-bank inquiry is finally charged again, and the "brand service fee" that UnionPay plans to charge will be just around the corner. Obviously, UnionPay and the bank make no secret of their desire and impulse for "robbery" and are ready to "beat the dog behind closed doors" to consumers who have been trapped and have no choice.

No wonder people often use the term "bank owner" to describe the super-rich. A bank is a bank, and you can increase your income by thinking of something: only what you don't expect, nothing you can't get. By the end of 2005, there were 175 bank card issuing institutions in China, with 960 million cards issued, of which the cumulative number of UnionPay cards issued had reached 550 million. According to this calculation, the bank will be able to increase the annual fee by 9.6 billion yuan only last time; if it is simply estimated according to the monthly inter-bank inquiry of each card, it can increase the income by 1.98 billion yuan, and UnionPay and the bank will each get 660 million yuan and 1.32 billion yuan respectively.

however, it is strange that although there are more and more charges and higher and higher additional income, the level of banking services has not improved and the efficiency of banks has not improved significantly. Only "the problem of excessive wages and rapid growth of employees is more prominent"-- Bu Zhengfa, vice minister of labor and social security, said at the third high-level salary management forum held a few days ago. The average salary of workers in monopoly industries, including finance and power, is two to three times that of workers in other industries, and if you add in the differences in extra-wage income and employee benefits, the actual income gap may be even greater (Chinanews.com, May 18). The salary level of the top managers of the bank is even higher, the annual salary of the presidents of the four major banks is 1 million yuan, the average annual salary of the general manager of the department and the president of the first-level branch is about 500000 yuan, and the president of the second-tier branch is about 200000 yuan.

from "pay if you want" to "overpaid", if not a straight line, it is at least a blood-related curve. By virtue of the monopoly status, the monopolist openly asks for monopoly profits from consumers in the tough posture of "taking as much as he wants", and then closes the door to complete the "secondary distribution" internally in order to achieve self-fattening. This is the essence of the so-called "bank card eating money era". Although the only evidence of "legitimacy" that banks can produce is the specious "international practice", they have successfully broken through the bottom line of "legal legitimacy" and "moral legitimacy" one after another. If the "referee" has been taking a sideline attitude towards this unfair deprivation, it is not impossible for the bank to sell tickets like a park on the day when the bank is at its wit's end to increase the fees. By then, apart from the corners and corners of their own homes, there will be no place to hide people's hard-earned money.

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Source: Xinhuanet/Shu Shengxiang