Zhongxin Finance, February 23 (Reporter Li Jinlei) For individual banks to suspend cash business, the central bank stopped it!
Some banks suspend cash business, attracting attention
On February 21, the People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly held a symposium on RMB cash services for banking financial institutions.
The meeting pointed out that
the phenomenon of refusal to accept cash still occurs in the society, and the willingness of individual banking institutions to handle cash business has declined or even stopped cash business.
Zhongxin Finance has noticed that recently, two private banks have announced that they will suspend cash business.
Among them, Liaoning Zhenxing Bank issued an announcement to suspend counter and ATM cash business. From March 1, 2022, it will suspend counter cash deposit and withdrawal, change exchange, damaged currency exchange, ATM deposit and withdrawal and other cash services.
Beijing Zhongguancun Bank issued an announcement on the suspension of cash collection and payment business, and will suspend cash collection and payment business from April 1, 2022.
Beijing Zhongguancun Bank and Liaoning Zhenxing Bank are both private banks, both established in 2017.
The two banks mentioned one reason for the suspension of cash business: continuously increasing the development of online business and concentrating resources to improve the service capabilities of e-banking.
Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said that in general, there are relatively many opinions that the society does not understand or even opposes.
According to the preliminary investigation, some bank outlets have also suspended cash deposit and withdrawal services, involving rural credit cooperatives, foreign banks, etc., as well as some large state-owned banks.
Data map: People's Bank of China.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Xinglong
Banks with physical branches must handle cash business
In this regard, the meeting demanded that the RMB cash deposit and withdrawal business should be done well, and
all commercial banks, rural credit cooperatives and other institutions with physical outlets must handle the RMB cash deposit and withdrawal business.
Fan Yifei said that
institutions should not suspend the RMB cash deposit and withdrawal business on the grounds of business transformation and upgrading, less cash business, cost control, and business management risk reduction.
This means that the suspension of the RMB cash deposit and withdrawal business has been suspended.
What signal does this send?
This fully reflects the determination of the regulatory authorities to create a good cash flow ecology.
On February 22, the central bank released the penalties for refusing to accept cash in RMB in the fourth quarter of 2021, and imposed economic penalties on 32 units that refused to accept cash and relevant responsible persons according to the law.
The units punished include public service institutions such as water, electricity, gas, and property payment, as well as parking lots, insurance companies, chain restaurants, and medical institutions.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China Merchants Union Finance, told Zhongxin Finance that RMB cash is my country's legal tender, and no unit or individual may refuse to accept it.
From a practical point of view, most people can understand that online transactions cannot support cash collection and payment in payment methods due to limited conditions.
However, if more offline institutions refuse to accept renminbi or take discriminatory measures against cash payments, it will affect the normal circulation of renminbi and bring inconvenience to people who are accustomed to using cash.
RMB data map.
Photo by Zhang Yun
In fact, cash demand remains strong.
As of the end of 2021, my country's cash in circulation (M0) was 9.08 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, and continued to maintain a stable growth momentum. The net cash investment for the year was 651 billion yuan.
Dong Ximiao pointed out that in the past period of time, some regions and industries have discriminated against cash and refused to accept cash and bank cards.
Therefore, it is timely and necessary to re-emphasize that we should do a solid job in RMB cash deposit and withdrawal business.
Dong Ximiao suggested that the next step should be to speed up the revision of the "People's Bank of China Law", "Renminbi Management Regulations" and "Cash Management Interim Regulations", improve the legal system construction in the field of payment and settlement, clarify the penalty standards for refusing cash and other acts, and handle it for the public. Cash business creates a better environment in an effort to close the "digital divide" in financial services.
In addition, banking financial institutions should raise awareness, not unilaterally pursue the speed of digital technology development, not simply pass on the necessary service costs, and balance the relationship between customer needs, operating costs, and risk prevention, especially qualified banking financial institutions should be appropriate. Retain manual service windows and provide cash collection and payment services appropriately.
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