Mr. Fu is a Chinese man living in the Xiaoshan area of Hangzhou, China. Because of business needs, he often uses cashier checks. One day he went to a branch of a not-named bank (with whom he already has two accounts) with a 200,000 RMB (roughly US$32,500) cashier check, wanting to transfer the money onto one of his bank accounts. Having done this many times before at other branches, he thought it would be a painless process. Boy was he in for a surprise.

When Fu told the bank teller at this particular branch what he wanted to do, the teller insisted that Fu must open a new bank account before the cashier check is accepted and the money transferred. Fu insisted he had done this before and that there was no such need, but the bank teller was persistent and eventually Fu did as asked — he opened a new bank account with that bank to get his 200,000 RMB.

Later when he got home, Fu learned the reason why the bank teller had forced him to open a new bank account: quotas.

You see individual bank branches in China have deposit quotas they must meet. (Do other banks around the world work like that, too?) Even if you already have a bank account with a particular bank, if the bank account was not opened at the specific branch you are at, depositing money does not go towards that branch’s quota. Hence, the bank teller forced Fu to open a new bank account, so the 200,000 RMB deposit would go towards that branch’s quota.

Upon learning this, Fu was enraged. So what did he do? Oh, only what every other normal person would do: take a bunch of friends to the bank branch in question and demand to open 500 new accounts.

The particular bank branch in question opened 70 new accounts for Fu & co but eventually stopped them due to the burden it was placing on normal operations. After Fu insisted on opening all 500 new accounts, the bank eventually gave in and apologized to Fu for its behavior.

Stick it to ’em, Fu. And while you are at it, lend me some of those redbacks you seem to have a lot of.

[Thanks WildCat, via HaoHaoReport]