There are new rules for deposit inheritance! Notarization is exempted for less than 50,000 yuan, and the scope of quick extraction is extended to gold accumulation, national debt, etc.
On April 26th, the General Administration of Financial Supervision, together with the People’s Bank of China, issued the Notice on Optimizing the Requirements for Withdrawal of Small Deposits of Deceased Depositors (hereinafter referred to as the Notice).
According to the Notice, the simplified withdrawal account limit is raised from the minimum of 10,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan. At the same time, funeral expenses and pensions are not included in the 50,000 yuan account limit, and the withdrawal can be simplified in full. Gold accumulation products, national debt and bank consignment wealth management products have also been included in the simplified extraction scope this time. In addition, the Notice also clarifies the relevant requirements for inquiring about account transaction details. Banks can provide account transaction details after the death of the deceased depositor and within 6 months before his death at the request of the heirs in first order.
In addition to small and medium-sized banks in rural areas, banking financial institutions will implement the relevant provisions of the Notice from June 1.
Simplified deposit inheritance version 2.0
In January, 2021, the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the People’s Bank of China jointly issued the Notice on Simplifying the Withdrawal of Small Deposits from Deceased Depositors (also known as Circular No.18), which canceled the notarization requirement for the first-order heirs, heirs or legatees designated by a just will to withdraw the deposits from deceased depositors within 10,000 yuan, and allowed banks to raise the limit between 10,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan.
In March, 2023, the Ministry of Justice issued ten typical cases of continuously promoting "reducing certificates and facilitating the people", among which, China Bank Taiyuan Xinghualing Branch was selected as a customer to quickly handle the small deposit withdrawal business of deceased depositors.
In the case note, the Ministry of Justice pointed out that according to the "looking back" investigation after the publication of Circular 18, all banking institutions strictly implemented the requirement of notarization-free withdrawal within 10,000 yuan, and more than half of the surveyed institutions actively raised the limit of notarization-free withdrawal, and the coverage rate of notarization-free withdrawal in the deposit withdrawal business of deceased depositors reached 86.6%. According to the investigation and estimation, after the publication of Circular 18, the number of convenience businesses extracted without notarization nationwide reached about 689,000 in 2021.
The Ministry of Justice pointed out that in the past, the difficulty in withdrawing small deposits from deceased depositors caused widespread concern in society. In the case of full investigation to ensure that the overall risk can be controlled, the notarization requirement for small deposit withdrawal is cancelled, and some supporting materials are replaced by personal commitments, which significantly reduces the burden on the people who handle affairs and has a high degree of social concern.
The person in charge of the relevant departments of the General Administration of Financial Supervision said that the Notice can also be regarded as the 2.0 version of Circular 18. Specifically:
First, the account limit for simplified withdrawal will be raised from a minimum of 10,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan.
The second is to expand the scope of simplified extraction. Gold accumulation products, national debt and wealth management products will be included in the simplified extraction scope.
The third is to clearly inquire about the relevant requirements of account transaction details. A bank may, at the request of the successor in first order, provide details of account transactions after the death of the deceased depositor and within 6 months before his death.
The fourth is to strengthen and improve financial services. The bank is required to inform the applicant of the relevant requirements at one time in the case that the materials submitted by the applicant in the small deposit withdrawal business are incomplete or do not meet the requirements. Banks can refer to the requirements of Circular 18, simplify the procedures for extracting funeral expenses and pensions, and handle simplified extraction for the first-in-line heirs.
However, it should be noted that this Notice gives rural small and medium-sized financial institutions a longer time to meet the standards, allowing rural small and medium-sized banks to postpone the requirement of raising the account limit for simplified withdrawal from a minimum of 10,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan by the end of 2025.
The person in charge of the relevant departments of the General Administration of Financial Supervision pointed out that this mainly takes into account the differences between regions and institutions, and facilitates deposit inheritance while ensuring deposit safety.
In addition, this Notice clarifies that besides deposits, the simplified withdrawal procedures also include gold accumulation products, national debt and wealth management products, and the maximum amount within this withdrawal range is 50,000 yuan. It is worth noting that the previous Circular 18 included the wealth management products issued by banks themselves in simplified extraction, and this time it further included the wealth management products on consignment.
You can inquire about the account transaction details of the deceased depositor in the first 6 months of his life.
In addition to raising the limit of simplified withdrawal and expanding the scope of simplified withdrawal, another important optimization measure of this Notice is to clearly stipulate that the heirs in first order can inquire about the details of bank account transactions of the deceased depositors in the first six months of their lives and after their death.
The person in charge of the relevant departments of the General Administration of Financial Supervision pointed out that the details of the bank account transactions of the deceased depositors recorded some personal information of the deceased depositors before their lives, which may involve personal privacy and should be treated with caution. Commercial banks have the obligation of "keeping secrets for depositors". Although the heirs can generally inherit the contractual rights and obligations between the deceased depositor and the bank, based on the personal attributes of the account transaction information, the heirs do not naturally obtain the right to know the account transaction information. If the account transaction information is improperly used and the privacy of the deceased depositor is infringed, the actor shall bear civil liability.
However, the Law on the Protection of Personal Information, which came into effect in November 2021, stipulates that close relatives can exercise the right to consult the relevant personal information of the deceased for their own legitimate and legitimate interests, unless the deceased made other arrangements before his death. At the same time, in reality, there is also a reasonable demand for heirs to inquire about the details of the pre-life transactions of deceased deposits under certain circumstances.
Therefore, this Notice clarifies the relevant requirements for inquiring account transaction details to meet the inquiry requirements under specific circumstances. However, in order to avoid unnecessary and unrestricted inquiries and protect the personal information and privacy rights of deceased depositors, the Notice stipulates the inquiry of applicants and the realization of inquiries, that is, banks can provide details of account transactions of deceased depositors after their death and within six months before their death at the request of the heirs in first order.
The person in charge of the relevant departments of the General Administration of Financial Supervision said that the General Administration of Financial Supervision and the People’s Bank of China encouraged banks to agree with depositors in advance on matters such as deposit inheritance and transaction details inquiry after their death through contractual agreements.
Review two questions and two answers
1. What materials are needed to withdraw the deposit of the deceased depositor?
The previous Circular 18 made it clear that the spouse, children and parents of the deceased depositor should submit the following materials to the banking financial institution where the deposit is located when handling the small deposit withdrawal business of the deceased depositor:
(1) The death certificate and other materials that can prove the fact of the death of the deceased depositor;
(two) the residence booklet, marriage certificate, birth certificate and other materials that can prove the kinship;
(three) to extract the valid identity documents of the applicant;
(four) to extract the letter of commitment signed by the applicant.
The heirs or legatees designated by the notarized will of the deceased depositor shall submit the following materials to the banking financial institution where the deposit is located when handling the small deposit withdrawal business of the deceased depositor:
(1) The death certificate and other materials that can prove the fact of the death of the deceased depositor;
(2) A notarized will designating the withdrawal applicant as the heir or legatee of the deceased depositor;
(three) to extract the valid identity documents of the applicant;
(four) to extract the letter of commitment signed by the applicant.
2. Is the limit of 50,000 yuan all deposits or a single bank?
Previously, Circular 18 made it clear that one of the conditions to be met in handling the small deposit withdrawal business of the deceased depositor is that the total account balance of the deceased depositor in the same corporate banking financial institution does not exceed 10,000 yuan (or equivalent foreign currency, excluding outstanding interest).