The China Construction Bank will charge management fees on all smaller accounts from September. Last July the bank conducted a trial operation, charging fees at its Shenzhen and Sichuan branches.

Under the new policy, each individual small account will be charged 3 yuan, or about US$0.4 every 3 months. The fee is much less than the 10 yuan a month which the bank charged in Shenzhen and Sichuan during the trial.

The bank's provincial branches will be granted the right to decide their own thresholds for charging. For example, the Hunan provincial branch has defined a small account as an individual current deposit account with a daily deposit of less than 300 yuan, while Shenzhen set the threshold at 500 yuan.

(CCTV.com August 1, 2005)