PBOC plans to charge banks for online payment system usage

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) issued a draft about planning to charge for service provided by its payment system, Beijing Evening News reported Sunday.

The free online interbank settlement system started running in August 2010, mainly to deal with interbank online payments lower than 50,000 yuan ($8,208.43), the report said.

On the system, customers can check their online accounts in different banks and transfer cash among different accounts, the report said, noting transactions can be completed almost immediately.

Now, there are 130 commercial banks in the system, which includes almost all commercial banks that provide online services, the report said.

The system is under growing pressure brought on by a large amount of needs and usage, leading to several service delays, according to the report.

Therefore, the PBOC is planning to charge commercial banks for the system services from January 1, 2014, but the draft did not reveal any specific charging standards, the report said.

According to the draft, commercial banks that have promised customers free online service cannot charge for the online service in the first two months after the PBOC implements charges on the system, Beijing Youth Daily reported Friday.