August 28, 2009
Today’s Yangtse Evening Post reprinted a article from the Guangzhou Daily about a man in Dongguan who was denied service at a bank because of his name.
On 26th, Li Jun (李军) went to a local bank branch to open an account. However, he was informed that the bank’s computer system, which covers the entire province, allows a maximum of three hundred accounts under the same name. There were already three hundred accounts opened by people named Li Jun, so the unfortunate 301st Li Jun was unable able get one.
The article, which for some reason did not reveal which bank Li Jun visited, nonetheless reported that none of the other banks in the city have such limits on accounts for people with identical names.
The manager of the bank said he did not understand either and speculated that the policy “may be out of consideration for customer security.”
A lawyer quoted in the article said that although there is no law forbidding the practice, a bank “should be like a taxi: both are bonded by accepted commercial practice, and therefore should not refuse to serve customers without a valid reason.”
- Chengdu Business News (Chinese): He cannot open a bank account because his name is Li Jun
- More arbitrary rules on Danwei: Temporary residence permits hard to come by