Bank fees in CzechRep highest in Central Europe - press

Total fee and commission income for last year is estimated to reach Kc47bn, an increase of Kc200-300m from 2008.

"The bank fees in the Czech Republic are above the European and the global average," bank fee expert Patrik Nacher told the daily.

Definitive results will be available at the end of March, Nacher said.

Bank fees stood at around Kc34.1bn in Q1-Q3 last year, which is an improvement against the same year-ago period, and the trend continued in the last quarter of 2009, said Nacher.

Net fee income is to top Kc36bn, he added. "This is quite an astronomical figure," he said. "Firms and citizens in the Czech Republic pay Kc1,145 in bank fees each second, more than Kc4m an hour and nearly Kc100m a day," said Nacher.

Experts say that people themselves are also to blame for the size of the fees. They do not go to cheaper competition though they complain about the bank practices.

There has been the most absurd bank fee contest in the Czech Republic whose winners are, for instance, the incoming payment fee, the deposit fee and the ATM withdrawal fee from the card holder's own bank.

The major part of the "bank cake" is distributed among CSOB bank, Ceska sporitelna and Komercni banka, the paper said.

Bank fees in the European region last year (in Czech crowns)

Source: Scott & Rose

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz