Bintulu Member of Parliament, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing said the leniency of the government had also allowed the banks to introduce new fees and charges  that only burdened the customers.

"Probably being overlooked when the merging process was proposed, but now the failure of the banks to raise their efficiency after the merger had seen the customers, particularly small-time businessmen to suffer," he added.

He raised the issue when debating on the 2006 budget at the current parliamentary session.

Following completion of the mergers, he saw no additional benefits being introduced for the customers with the lesser numbers of banks available but instead further hindrances for small businesses to prosper.

He cited the enormous bank charges that the businesses had to endure in their financial transactions like payment of salaries to their employee or issuances of cheques, to name a few.

It was also found that banks had also introduced additional burdening conditions on loan applications to which the flexibilities applied in previous had no longer available.

While agreeing to a more democratise policy for managing financial institutions, Tiong believed that the government should also exercise its authorities over the banks to protect the interests of the customers.

He saw the Finance Ministry and Bank Negara Malaysia would have the power to see that all banks would toe the line and subscribed fully to the intention to strengthen the nation's banking institution in order to compete globally.

"I request the Finance Minister or the Bank Negara Governor would be able to realise the mistakes and would order for the reviews of unnecessary burdening charges  and conditions imposed by banks on their customers. I want the issue solved to ensure our nation economy would grow efficiently," he added.