Bank should waive online account fee from 2 Jan 2015

After we published our blog post  Petroleum price drop below Malaysia subsidy level on 28 October 2014. One reader or cyber trooper Wow123 commented that our post just another  talk syior sendiri lio lor .

One of veteran TV host (guy) on Astro AEC's Evening News, Gan, even comment within 24 hours of our blog post that, While petroleum price is dropping, one country, China, is accumulating stock of petroleum. This mean China do not think the current low petroleum price level would be prolong. And he laugh after he said

  On 21 November 2014, Malaysia government announced that retail prices for RON95 petrol and diesel will be fixed according to a managed float effective Nov 2014. This proof every comment above wrong. We thank Malaysia government to lift burden of Malaysia, which have been pressured by inflation and price increase recently. But what next?

Effective 2 Jan 2015, those issuing a cheque will be charged a 50 sen processing fee by commercial banks.  The fee was in addition to the existing 15 sen stamp duty per cheque.

Bank Negara announced this measure on March 20, 2013 to promote the use of electronic payment (e-payment) while capping the fee for interbank GIRO transactions performed via Internet and mobile banking at a maximum of 10 sen from May 2, 2013.

Thank you, Bank Negara. As some bank charge RM2.00 per transaction compare to RM0.15 per cheque than.

However, Bank still charge a monthly fixed charges despite transaction fee cap at RM0.10 per transaction. This is still a burden to Small and Medium Enterprise ( SME ) especially those issue less than 20 cheque per month. This act as a deterrent to SME who have less than 20 transaction per month to switch from issue cheque to e-payment.

Nanyang did a survey on 23 February 2014. Maybank charge minimum RM10.00 per month, plus transaction fee ranging RM78.00 to RM128.00 per month.UOB charges RM10.00 per month to be able to view transaction and check balance online, If want online transaction additional RM50.00 per month will be charges. Public Bank charges RM50.00 on first month and RM20.00 every month subsequently. RHB Bank charge RM30.00 per month regarless any transaction or not.

Cash in current account do not earn you any interest. Bank able to make use of the cash and need not pay any interest to account holder. Now for online account. Bank will charge you money even if you have money in bank and bank able to make used of your money to earn interest for them.

This does not encourage business to switch from cheque to e-payment, especially SME who issue less than 20 cheques per month.

Association of Banks Malaysia (ABM) said cost of processing each cheque amounted to RM3.00 per cheque compare to extra RM0.50 charges. Bank still incurred RM300 million per year in processing cheque.  This mean bank in Malaysia will safe RM300 million per year if all company shift from cheque payment to e-payment. Then, shouldn't bank be the one who absorb the cost of of developing the software by waiving all the monthly charges on business as  bank have RM300 million saving in cost per year and should not pass the cost of software to business.

We urge Bank Negara and Association of Banks Malaysia (ABM) to waive all monthly charges to account holder effective 2 Jan 2015. Same date when extra RM0.50 charge on each cheque issue.

Update :收50仙支票费 国行设立基金 明年奖掖电子付费
 Steps unveiled to speed up migration to e-payments
郑己胜：鼓励客户使用 政府应吸纳电子付费成本