【双语】管控成本、做活App,银行免费动账短信加速“退场”

(Yicai) Feb. 11 — Against the backdrop of shrinking net interest margins, Chinese banks have made SMS notifications for transactions lower than certain amounts a paid service to control costs.

在净息差收窄、运营成本承压的背景下，国内多家银行对低于一定金额的交易短信通知实行收费服务。

China Merchants Bank will stop sending free SMS for transactions below CNY5,000 (USD725) from March 16, the lender recently announced. Clients who wish to keep the service will have to pay a monthly fee of CNY3 (43 US cents).

招商银行近日公告称，自3月16日起，5000元以下的交易短信通知将不再免费发送。如需保留短信提醒服务，客户需按月支付3元费用。

More than 10 other large- and medium-sized banks, including Bank of China, as well as several rural commercial banks, have also announced they will charge monthly fees for SMS transaction notifications, according to incomplete statistics compiled by Yicai. However, their payment thresholds were set at CNY100 to CNY500 (USD15 to USD72), much lower than that of China Merchants Bank.

据第一财经不完全统计，包括中国银行在内的十余家大中型银行及多家农商行也将对短信交易提醒实行按月收费。不过，这些银行的收费门槛普遍设定在100元至500元之间，远低于招商银行的标准。

SMS transaction notifications are not mandatory basic services, so charging fees is within regulatory rules as a market-based practice, Dong Ximiao, chief researcher at Merchants Union Consumer Finance and deputy director of the Shanghai Institute for Finance and Development, told Yicai.

招联首席研究员、上海金融与发展实验室副主任董希淼向第一财经表示，交易短信通知并非法定基础金融服务，收费属于市场化行为，符合监管规定。

Even though the price per SMS is low, the total expenditure is substantial, given banks’ huge customer base and high transaction frequency, making this cost a financial burden lenders are eager to cut.

A bank with 100 million personal accounts likely pays CNY3 million (USD434 million) per month to mobile network operators, if each account receives just one free SMS for a small transaction per month for 3 Chinese cents (0.43 US cent) per message, according to industry estimates. That adds up to more than CNY36 million (USD5.2 million) a year.

业内人士测算，若一家拥有1亿个人客户的银行，每位客户每月因小额动账接收1条免费短信，按均价0.03元计算，每月需支付约300万元的运营成本，全年支出超过3600万元。

Chinese banks’ net interest margins — the difference between the interest a bank earns on its loans and investments and the interest it pays on deposits and other funding — have been continuously narrowed in recent years. So, even such once-overlooked expense has now become an important focus for lenders to refine cost management.

近年来，在净息差——即银行从贷款、债券投资等生息资产获得的利息收入，减去支付给存款人及其他债权人的利息支出后的差额——持续收窄的背景下，这类原本被视为“边角料”的费用，正成为银行精细化成本管理的重要抓手。

“Assuming each customer receives up to 100 SMS a month, charging a monthly fee of CNY3 per message will basically cover the costs and even part of the spending on system maintenance, risk control, and management,” an industry insider told Yicai.

“若按每位客户每月100条以内的短信量估算，银行向客户收取约3元的月费，基本可以覆盖短信采购成本，甚至还有一定空间用于系统维护、风控和管理支出。”一位业内人士对记者表示。

Besides covering operational costs, charging fees for SMS transaction notifications can also guide customers to use zero-cost digital channels, such as bank apps and WeChat official accounts, Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China, told Yicai.

中国邮政储蓄银行研究员娄飞鹏表示，银行通过提高免费短信门槛，有助于压降运营成本。同时，银行正引导客户转向App弹窗、微信服务号等“零边际成本”的数字化渠道。

“Shifting payment alerts to mobile banking apps and WeChat can boost customers’ app usage, thus driving the adoption of integrated services, such as account management and wealth allocation,” said Yang Haiping, a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law.

“通过将动账提醒迁移至手机银行和微信渠道，可以提高客户打开App的频率，进而带动账户管理、财富配置等综合服务使用。”上海金融与法律研究院研究员杨海平表示。

The banking industry will eventually adopt a model where free SMS alerts are kept for large transactions, while notifications for small transactions are sent by default via apps or WeChat, Lou predicted. Fully free SMS services will only be provided to designated groups, such as high-end clients and elderly customers, who are less familiar with app operations.

娄飞鹏预计，未来全行业或将形成“大额免费、小额付费”的格局，即大额交易继续保留免费短信通知，小额交易默认通过App或微信推送。免费短信仅对高端客户、不熟悉App操作的老年客户等特定群体保留豁免。