China to limit people to four bank accounts to put lid on phone scams

[Rancor]

China to limit people to four bank accounts to put lid on phone scams

Customers won’t be allowed to open new accounts in bulk or on behalf of a third party, lending regulator says

PUBLISHED : Monday, 14 March, 2016, 10:58pm
UPDATED : Monday, 14 March, 2016, 10:59pm

Mimi Lau in Guangzhou
[email protected]

Banks should check with customers who already had four accounts and terminate any that were opened without the client’s consent. the China Banking Regulatory Commission said. Photo: Reuters

China’s banking regulator is capping the number of private accounts a person can have at any one bank to four in a bid to crack down on financial crimes, CCTV reported on Monday.

The decision by the China Banking Regulatory Commission comes after a raft of phone scams in which victims were duped into transferring money to accounts that were either opened with fake identities or were inactive accounts bought from others.

In a notice sent to banks, the commission said banks had to strictly screen account applications and could not open new accounts in bulk or on behalf of a third party.

Each customer was banned from having more than four cards or accounts at each commercial bank, the notice said.

There was previously no cap on the total.

Banks should check with customers who already had four accounts and terminate any that were opened without the client’s consent, the notice said.

Banks were also urged to step up management to strengthen bank card safety.

The regulatory notice also urged banks to improve contact with customers.

The measures drew mixed reactions from online commenters. One netizen surnamed He said he was not interested in cancelling his inactive accounts because the bank would charge him a cancellation fee.