Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK) announced on Wednesday that it would levy 60 Hong Kong dollars (7.7 US dollars) as monthly charges to check accounts below 5,000 HK dollars (641 US dollars) from Nov. 1.

He Huangbei, chief executive of the BOCHK, said the decision was made because of the rise of the management cost.

A spokesperson for the BOCHK said in a telephone interview with Xinhua that the bank will also increase the service charges to deposit accounts below 5,000 HK dollars from the present 50 HK dollars (6.4 US dollars) to 60 HK dollars a month as of Oct. 24.

The spokesperson said customers can use ATM and internet to pay off part of their bills nowadays, so the number of check users declines and that has made the cost of the check account management more expensive.

However, no other big banks in Hong Kong has followed suit so far.

Source: Xinhua