Chinese banks will stop charging the hotly-disputed cross-bank ATM inquiry fee by April 20, said the China Banking Association on Friday.

Liu Zhangjun, deputy chief of the association, said: "Member banks have agreed to stop charging the inquiry fee by April 20 in response to customer reaction."

"But the exact timetable will depend on their own systems," Liu noted.

On June 1 last year, many of China's commercial banks began to charge card holders from other banks 0.3 yuan (3.9 U.S. cents) each time they checked their bank account at an ATM. The charge triggered an uproar and an avalanche of criticism from bank clients.

The China Banking Association has 70 members, including almost all of China's policy banks, state-owned commercial banks and city commercial banks..

Liu said the banks made the decision to shoulder the social responsibility bearing in mind the interests of the nation's large number of low and medium income earners.

Banks initially sought to defend their action by saying the charge would help them boost their ATM networks. But analysts retorted that the big commercial banks were not willing to have their extensive ATM networks used for free by clients of their smaller peers.

"Eradicating the inquiry fee charge may dent the banks' enthusiasm for expanding their ATM networks," Liu claimed.

He added that the inquiry fee, introduced by market-oriented banks to reduce operational costs, had not violated the country's Price Law and Temporary Regulation of Commercial Banks Services Management.

Source: Xinhua