In a bid to streamline the fee management, protect the lawful interest of the consumers, and be responsible to the country, shareholders and customers, ICBC starts a program to overhaul its existing fee schedule and service items, under the principle of "fee schedule management, unified pricing, open and transparent". The new ICBC Service Fee Schedule (2012) is in force on April 1.

The new Service Fee Schedule is a comprehensive listing of fees stating the ICBC fees for 409 services, of which, fees for 16 services reference the government prices, fees for 393 services use market-adjusted prices. In the new fee schedule, most of the services that collect a fee are new products to meet the market and customer demands through ICBC innovation and service supply in recent years. As the new century unfolds especially after shareholding restructuring and going public, ICBC rolls out a wide spectrum of new products, new services to cater the needs of customers. Data show that ICBC has 887 types of products in 2005 and 3243 types by end-2011. Types of products provided to customers increased 2.6-fold since shareholding restructuring and going public. In general, the rise is consistent with the growth of intermediary business revenue during the last few years.

ICBC attaches high importance on the revision this time. All former fee items have been thoroughly checked, clarified and reviewed.

I. Iron out all improper fee items. For example: "treasury advisory", "corporate asset management advisory" considered as "service with unclear description", "service without record", "service result difficult to assess and check", are all cancelled. Another example: rectification on "interest-to-fee". The purpose of "interest-to-fee", as claimed, is mainly for making adjustment on income structure in a simple way, lower the ratio of interest income and increase the percentage of fee income. The interest should be collected is split into interest and fee. Although most of the "interest-to-fee" do not add burden to the customers or bring extra income to ICBC, they cause mismatching fees and services and bring malpractices. To a customer, this is bad experience, sometimes it makes interest income "in non-standard status".For example: according to risk pricing, loan interest rate to a company should be 7%. However, some low-level outlets offer lower nominal rate in order to adjust its income structure or increase the credibility of the customer as requested. Then, the company (borrower) can control the cost of borrowing from other sources. As a result, some of the interest income is directly changed as fee, ie. 7% interest rate becomes 6% interest rate + 1% fee. ICBC has taken all necessary steps to root out this kind of malpractice. Under the principle of "compliance operation, fee-for-service, full agreement, customer willing to pay" and a philosophy of "reasonable fees by value creation", ICBC will strive to offer a broad range of value-added services to compete for customers, win the market and sustain the growth.

II. Take public interest and affordability into full consideration. Services that ICBC can bear the cost should be charged lower or free of charge whenever necessary. In the new fee schedule, ICBC has cancelled the fee for "personal loan contract amendment", reduced the fees for "reporting lost personal A/C", "certification of personal deposit", "remittance express", "bank card renewal/replacement", which are fee items closely related to the daily life of the general folks. Meanwhile, under the principle of "protect the capital, very small profit", ICBC collects less fees for services with lower cost spurred by advances in IT. In particular, fee discounts are offered to electronic banking services so that customers pay less fees while enjoying faster and more convenient financial services, allowing corporate clients and personal customers of ICBC to get the benefits of financial innovation and technological advances. Before this, ICBC has waived the fees on some primary financial services to the public, such as no petty account management fee or no bank card annual fee for salary account, retired fund account, accounts for minimum living standard guarantee, medical insurance account, unemployed insurance account and housing provident fund account opened under agreement.

III. Combine the services with similar contents and functions. For example: "Inter-city cash deposit/advance settlement", "inter-city cash advance/transfer payment", "Money Link Card inter-city deposit and credit transfer" are services under different names, which means confusion to the customers. In fact, these services offer almost the same functions although the names are different. The difference is only the use of service by different types of card/account. In the new fee schedule, they are combined into one "inter-city cash deposit/advance settlement" for customers to understand easily.

ICBC has put the Service Fee Schedule into a service pricing manual, available at a conspicuous location in all ICBC outlets nationwide as reference for customers starting from April 1. In order to better protect the consumers' right to know and the right to choose, listed in the Service Fee Schedule for every fee item are the service name, fee, function, applicable customers, basis of fee collection and discount, in a concise and clear manner. Meanwhile, ICBC announces the service hotline 95588 at all outlets and the website for customers to ask for further information or lodge complaint, and for customers and public to monitor the ICBC services. ICBC also sets up a special office - Consumer Right Protection Office with an aim to protect the rights of consumers.

The next move of ICBC is to gear up the efforts on the innovation of products and services. The Bank strives to better serve the real economy and people's livelihood through continuous improvement program on the efficiency and value of services to consumers.