Commercial banks had until Aug. 30 to respond to a government questionnaire regarding proposed fee cuts and other rule changes before presenting them to Parliament.

"We've put together a questionnaire in order to find out which of the suggested changes are being prepared by banks themselves, which [of the changes] can be further talked through, and which requirements are unacceptable for banks," said Deputy Finance Minister Tomás Prouza. "Now it's up to banks to respond."

The government designed the survey, in part, after receiving over 200 customer comments from bank clients and other experts in response to a Finance Ministry invitation to post comments on its Web site.

The questionnaire was sent to officials at 35 certified commercial banks Aug. 17. It contains 88 questions about its proposals with requests that the banks explain why they consider them impractical or difficult to adopt.

Should banks ignore the request, Prouza said, the government will introduce the changes to Parliament to anchor them into law.

Among proposed changes, the government is asking that banks disclose to clients all personal data collected on them, adopt universal names for banking products and ban limitations on access to bank products (i.e. a mortgage can't be obtained unless the person is a customer of the bank).

For banks, however, most of the government's suggestions are unacceptable.

"Neither the Finance Ministry nor a consumers' association has the best direct link to clients and can know what they really want and at what price," said CSOB spokesman Milan Tománek.

Unification nightmare

Public pressure on banks to soften their prices caused most banks to abolish account cancellation fees this summer. It also prompted banks to agree to put together a unified database of banking fees so that clients can directly compare prices of products available on the market, a unified codex anchoring clients' rights and bank-sponsored educational programs about financial markets.

Apart from that, however, bankers found little common ground with the government over the past month of negotiations between the Finance Ministry and the Czech Banking Association.

Banks have made it clear that they do not want to hear about unification of terminology related to particular products in their portfolios or that banks be required to take care of client paperwork when clients switch banks.

"It's naive to think that a bank will sort out clients' moves to the competition," said Tománek. He added the requirement of unifying banking terminology was absurd.

"It is as if carmakers were ordered to call all their models just 'car' and throw them on the market," he said.

Banking association representatives also agreed that launching bank account portability as suggested by the government was not realistic in the midterm.

Cartel suspicion

The questionnaire became the latest move in the government's campaign against banks' alleged discriminatory treatment of clients.

In mid-May, the government initiated anti-monopoly proceedings against three major banks over suspicions they had formed a cartel regarding banking fees.

The Anti-Monopoly Office (ÚOHS) conducted a raid May 12 on Česká spořitelna, Komerční banka and ČSOB, seizing documents, computer files and other evidence related to account maintenance fees and fees to execute financial operations. The event constituted the biggest anti-monopoly crackdown in the country's history.

Bank officials denied any wrongdoing in dealing with clients and even received support from Czech National Bank Governor Zdeněk Tůma. He insisted there was sufficient competition in the banking sector and there were no obvious signs of a cartel.