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small and micro businesses are seeing good times again. on september 29, the china payment and clearing association and the china banking association issued the "initiative on encouraging the reduction of payment fees for small and micro enterprises" (hereinafter referred to as the "initiative"), advocating that commercial banks and non-bank payment institutions (hereinafter referred to as "payment institutions") ""), clearing agencies and other payment industry entities will continue some of the fee reduction project standards after the payment fee reduction measures for small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households expire to further support the development of the real economy.

the "initiative" stated that commercial banks and non-bank payment institutions are encouraged to continue to implement preferential or reduction measures for payment fees such as bank account service fees, rmb transfer and remittance fees, electronic banking service fees and payment account service fees; for other payment service procedures fees will be reduced independently under the principle of marketization; profits and discounts from clearing agencies and card issuing banks will be simultaneously transmitted to the fee reduction targets.

fee reduction and profit transfer exceed 100 billion yuan in 3 years

according to china business news, this is a continuation of the fee reduction and profit-sharing measures that have been implemented for about three years. in june 2021, the people's bank of china and four ministries and commissions including the former china banking and insurance regulatory commission (now the state financial supervision and administration bureau) jointly issued the "notice on reducing payment fees for small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households", requiring payment industry entities to reduce bank account fees. charging standards for service fees, card swiping fees and other government-priced and guided-price payment fee items.

in order to implement the spirit of the document, on june 25, 2021, the payment and clearing association and the china banking association issued the "proposal on reducing payment handling fees for small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households" and "on reducing inter-bank payment fees for automatic teller machines (atms)" "proposal on cash withdrawal fees" jointly calls on payment industry entities to implement preferential treatment for market-regulated payment fee items such as transfer and remittance fees, electronic banking service fees, payment account service fees, and atm inter-bank cash withdrawal fees.

the payment and clearing association stated in the announcement that since the implementation of payment fees for small and micro enterprises in 2021, under the guidance and advocacy of the people's bank of china and other ministries and industry associations, payment and clearing industry entities have actively implemented fee reduction policies and continued to benefit the real economy. as of the end of the second quarter of 2024, the association’s member units have accumulated variousmarket entitiesfee reductions and profit concessions of more than 100 billion yuan have effectively reduced the operating costs of small and micro entities, supported the development of the real economy, and played a positive role in helping small and micro entities overcome the difficulties of the epidemic and resume normal production and operations.

reducing payment fees for small and micro enterprises is of great significance, and small and micro entities still have an urgent need to reduce operating costs.

according to china business news, among the above-mentioned fee reduction policies, except for the long-term fee reductions for bill business service fees and atm inter-bank cash withdrawal fees, the remaining fee reduction policies will expire at the end of september 2024. in order to understand the actual effects and main impacts after the implementation of the fee reduction policy, as well as opinions and suggestions on relevant work arrangements after the policy expires, the payment and clearing association will conduct a survey on relevant member units (fee reduction entities) and small and micro entities ( fee reduction objects) conducted questionnaire surveys respectively.

the survey results show that small and micro entities hope that payment service entities will continue to implement preferential measures to reduce payment fees and operating costs; at the same time, commercial banks and payment institutions are also willing to continue the payment fee reductions of small and micro entities. the project has a positive attitude.

based on this, the payment and clearing association and the china banking association issued the above-mentioned "initiative", advocating that payment industry entities continue to reduce fees and benefit, benefit enterprises and the people, and support the development of the real economy and social people's livelihood.

reduce fees as much as possible, and reduce fees independently under the principle of marketization

looking specifically at the content of the "initiative", the two associations stated that in accordance with the overall idea of ​​"government encouragement, industry advocacy, independent fee reduction, and continuous profit sharing", they will follow the "reducing fees as much as possible, benefiting enterprises and the people, independently reducing fees, and doing their best." the principle of "doing within one's ability and improving quality and service" is advocated by market entities for bank account opening fees, bank account management fees and annual fees, rmb transfer and remittance fees, and electronic banking fees that have large initial profit transfers and high calls for fee reductions. for items such as annual fees and management fees, payment account balance withdrawal fees, etc., we will continue the preferential fee reduction measures and continue to reduce fees and benefit; for other items, we will independently reduce fees under market-oriented principles based on our own actual conditions, and give more to small and micro entities preferential policies to support the development of the real economy and social and people’s livelihood.

at the same time, according to the overall arrangement for fee reduction work, the clearing agency simultaneously issued an announcement to its member units, clarifying the preferential benefits for card issuers and clearing agencies involved in the reduction of bank card swipe fees, small-amount batch payment systems, and online payment inter-bank clearing system transactions. preferential rates, etc.

in addition, in order to promote the implementation of fee reductions in an orderly manner, industry associations have proposed supporting work measures such as improving fee reduction implementation plans, strengthening information disclosure and policy interpretation, and actively monitoring public opinion and response measures to ensure the implementation of fee reduction policies.

it is understood that in the process of forming the continuation arrangements for the fee reduction policy, major commercial banks, payment institutions and clearing institutions such as china unionpay actively participated in the support and put forward relevant opinions and suggestions based on the actual development of their own business to ensure that small and micro entities can fully enjoy the reduction in payment fees. we will actively respond to the association’s initiative to reduce payment fees and continue to benefit the real economy.