Depositors bear millions in losses, where is the bank's credit now?
[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
Case review
[4] In 2017, Wang, a credit officer at Qingxu Rural Commercial Bank and also Aunt Ding’s nephew-in-law, approached Aunt Ding twice, saying the bank had a 4 million yuan wealth management task and asked for her help. Subsequently, Aunt Ding deposited 4 million and 1 million yuan in two installments for wealth management.
[5] On March 7, 2019, Wang approached Aunt Ding again, hoping she would continue depositing to help him complete his task. Aunt Ding then deposited 5.43 million yuan, including proceeds from the wealth management products and interest, into Qingxu Rural Commercial Bank. Additionally, she deposited 2 million yuan in a demand account, which was later converted into a fixed deposit along with the previous 5.43 million yuan (totaling 7.43 million yuan) to help Wang fulfill his task.
[6] A few days later, Aunt Ding asked Wang for the deposit certificate, but he made excuses, saying it was locked in the bank and the manager was on leave.
Aunt Ding felt something was wrong. 7.43 million yuan in deposits had bank transfer receipts but were not credited; another 5 million yuan in fixed deposits were transferred out without any verification or alert from the bank.
In early May 2019, Aunt Ding reported this to Qingxu Rural Commercial Bank, demanding the funds be recovered and requesting to view the surveillance footage from the time of the incident. The bank's relevant manager refused to provide the footage, citing that bank surveillance is only kept for one month. Regarding the 7.43 million yuan bank receipts, Qingxu Rural Commercial Bank stated that both receipts were forged. Aunt Ding found the bank's response unacceptable and filed a complaint with the Shanxi Banking Regulatory Bureau in December 2019.
On February 27, 2020, the Shanxi Banking Regulatory Bureau responded to Aunt Ding's complaint. Regarding the receipt issue, the bureau stated, "Upon inquiry, the teller and authorized personnel at the business outlet said they did not know that Wang was an employee of Qingxu Rural Commercial Bank and had never issued false receipts."
To recover the missing deposits, Aunt Ding filed a civil lawsuit in court.
[1] Court Opinion
In the initial civil judgment regarding the 5 million yuan, the Qingxu County People's Court in Shanxi held that Aunt Ding should bear primary responsibility for the deposit loss, with the bank bearing secondary responsibility.
The court pointed out that as an adult, Aunt Ding should have anticipated that handing over her deposit certificate and ID card to others could lead to the risk of the deposit being withdrawn, but she allowed that risk to occur. Therefore, Aunt Ding had significant fault in the loss caused by this deposit and should bear corresponding responsibility.
Additionally, the court pointed out that the bank staff did not notify Ms. Ding by phone or text message before transferring the funds from the involved deposit slip to Wang Moumou's father, Wang Moumou's account. Moreover, the deposit slip had no password set, and the bank should have exercised greater caution in handling such unpassworded deposit withdrawals. Therefore, the bank failed to fulfill adequate management responsibilities and strict obligations to ensure fund security in this deposit loss case, and should bear corresponding liability for the losses caused by Wang Moumou's withdrawal of Ms. Ding's deposit.
Thus, in the initial 5 million yuan deposit dispute, the court ultimately ruled that the Rural Commercial Bank should pay Ms. Ding a total of 1 million yuan in losses, with the remaining 4 million yuan to be borne by Ms. Ding herself.
Ms. Ding and her family, dissatisfied with the above judgment, have filed an appeal, and the second-instance trial has not yet commenced.
Article 52 of the Commercial Bank Law of the People's Republic of China
Employees of commercial banks shall comply with laws, administrative regulations, and all other business management provisions, and shall not use their positions for personal gain to embezzle, misappropriate, or misappropriate the funds of the bank or its customers, nor shall they violate regulations by granting loans or providing guarantees to relatives or friends out of favoritism.
[1] The author's perspective
The author believes that in this case, the bank should bear greater responsibility, while the depositor should bear lesser responsibility, for the following reasons:
First, according to relevant regulations, financial institution staff are prohibited from keeping important items such as customers' deposit certificates, cards, and passbooks. The bank failed to fulfill its management obligations, resulting in Wang Moumou improperly holding Ms. Ding's deposit certificate and ID card.
Second, the contact number filled in by Ms. Ding in the deposit and withdrawal section was clearly inconsistent with the contact number filled in by Wang Moumou when withdrawing money on behalf of Ms. Ding. Regarding this, the bank staff handling the transaction did not contact Ms. Ding for confirmation.
Third, when handling the withdrawal on behalf of someone else, Wang Moumou did not provide a written authorization letter, yet the bank staff still remitted the deposit.
Fourth, the deposit with a one-year term was handled and withdrawn at a very abrupt time, and the bank staff, without verifying the identity of the client, Ms. Ding, hastily processed the remittance.
In summary, although Ms. Ding, as an adult, was somewhat at fault for handing over the deposit certificate and ID card to Wang, this was based on her trust in Wang, a bank employee. For the bank, Ms. Ding's mistake should not bear primary responsibility.
