YBhgia
Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz,
The Governor,
Bank Negara Malaysia,
Jalan Dato’ Onn,
50480 Kuala
Lumpur.
Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Dato’,
Protest Memorandum Against Bank
Negara’s Inaction And Indifference Towards The Arbitrary And
Excessive Bank Service Charges And Surcharges By Commercial Banks At
The Expense Of Consumers And At Variance With Social Corporate
Responsibility
We hereby submit a protest memorandum
against Bank Negara’s inaction and indifference towards the
arbitrary and excessive bank service charges and surcharges imposed
by commercial banks enabling banks to reap additional profits at the
expense of the consumer. Bank Negara must proactively reverse these
charges and surcharges to uphold the government’s oft-repeated
objective of social corporate responsibility.
Oftentimes these surcharges and
charges are imposed by fiat and at times without any prior notice
given to the bank customers. Such arrogance is not just offensive
but unfair to the consumers who lose out in increased financial
costs. Amongst the many grouses from consumers we have received from
consumers over the past month are:
-
Maybank’s decision to impose a
subscription fee for its online banking services where users of
Maybank2u.com which was launched free on June 2000 is now required
to pay a yearly fee of RM 12; online banking request for account
statement at RM 10 plus RM1 per page for current account
statements; 50 cents per withdrawal at ATM machines after the
fourth withdrawal within a month; 50 cents per transaction for
bill payments at ATMs; and RM 12 per annum for an unlimited number
of bills at other channels;
-
Banks requiring service charge for
deposits such as Southern Bank’s service charge of RM2 for deposit
of every additional 100 pieces of currency notes of any
denomination after the first 300 pieces, ie if 500 RM 1 currency
notes requires a service charge of RM 4;
-
Banks charging RM 20 on Savings or
Current Accounts closed within 6 months;
-
Banks charging RM 5 on all
inter-branch personal cheque encashment where it is silly to be
charged for taking out our own money;
-
Excessive charges on overdrawn
accounts by banks especially Southern Bank charging RM 200 for
returned cheques due to insufficient funds and another RM 200 for
represented cheques(charged together with returned cheques) and RM
50 for non-collection of cheque books after 30 days;
-
Some banks charge of RM 60
for one telephone call to top up your overdrawn current account
Apart from penalty interest late administration fee of RM50 &
RM100 at 15 & 45 days past due date respectively;
-
Certain banks charging
service charges for current account below certain balances where
one bank is charging RM 10 per month for personal accounts with
less than RM 1,000 average daily balances ie an inactive RM 500
current account would be exhausted in 4 years.
The
Chairman of the Association of Banks in Malaysia(ABM) Dr Rozali
Mohamed Ali had said that ABM would not advise banks on pricing
matters as it is their prerogative. Such an attitude is contrary to
the government’s oft-repeated call for corporate social
responsibility leaving the consumers no choice but to rely on Bank
Negara to uphold fairplay and protect consumer interests.
In Bank Negara’s website, the Bank
proudly states that it is guided by the principle that it should act
only in the economic interest of the nation and without regard to
profit as a primary consideration. Therefore Bank Negara has a
primary duty to immediately act in the economic interest of ordinary
Malaysians and not be a mere bystander and watch banks pad their
profits at the expense of consumers.
Lest we forget, commercial banks’
pre-tax profit increased from RM 2.5 billion in 2001, RM 6.4 billion
in 2002 and RM 6.9 billion in 2003. For the third quarter 2004, the
profitability of the banking system remained favourable with RM 2.8
billion pre-tax profit, an increase of 17% compared to the RM 2.4
billion in the corresponding quarter last year. As the banks can
afford to do so, Bank Negara must
direct banks to cease burdening their clients before
Malaysians lose faith in the banking institution.
Bank Negara should shed its
indifference and disregard of the complaints and dissatisfaction of
the consumers by removing these excessive charges as ordinary
Malaysians should be your primary concern and not the additional
profit-making capability of banks. An early reply is appreciated.
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