Chinese banks will start charging bankcard holders for account enquiries made at any ATMs not owned by issuers. The Big Four banks, ICBC, CCB, BOC and ABC have all published new policies that will be effective from June 1. In general, they will charge RMB 0.30 for each trans-bank ATM inquiry and RMB 4.0 for each cross-border inquiry. China UnionPay (CUP) allows banks to impose respective fee schemes.

CUP explained that charging fees is to cut unnecessary inquiries and improve the quality of interchange service.