The instruction by the Prime Minister on paying salaries to state officials through bank accounts proves to be good news for banks as banks will have several million more clients.
State employees at ministries, government agencies, and central People’s Committees will receive their salaries through bank accounts under a newly-implemented instruction passed by the Prime Minister.
In fact, salary payments for retired officials through the bank have been implemented on a trial basis in HCM City since June 2006.
Cao Van Sang, Deputy Director of the HCM City Social Insurance, said that there were 90,000 pension and social allowance beneficiaries in HCM City, who receive VND100bil a month. Therefore, the payment through banks would benefit both the beneficiaries and the city’s social insurance.
Tran Phuong Binh, Director General of East Asia Bank (EAB), acknowledged that the Prime Minister’s instruction was good news for banks.
EAB has been providing payment services to retired state officials in HCM City since April 2007, and now the bank has begun providing the services in Tien Giang province.
In fact, EAB and 20 other banks have been providing payment services to several million labourers of many enterprises in HCM City.
According to the State Bank of Vietnam, to date, 20 banks have issued payment cards with 6.2mil issued cards, four car alliances, which own 3,800 auto teller machines (ATMs) nationwide. If banks and alliances can cooperate with each other well, the salary payments through banks will not be a technical problem for banks.
Commercial banks have applauded the Prime Minister’s decision, which aims to fight against corruption and fulfill the plan on non-cash payment in the 2006-2010 period approved in late 2006. The credit operation director of a bank said that banks would have several million more clients. Banks can collect fees not only from transactions, but also from a lot of other services that the clients will use.
“If clients can be served well, they will think of making deposits, borrowing money and use other services of the banks,” he said.
In fact, many banks have been trying to provide additional services to clients who receive salaries through bank accounts. EAB, for example, allows the overdraft of up to five-month salaries. The bank also exempts them from paying card issuance fees, fees for paying salaries and annual fees for the first two years. Meanwhile, ACB offers them loans worth up to VND100mil with no mortgaged assets.
A lot of other banks, including An Binh, Techcombank, Military Bank and Habubank, also offer preferences for their clients who collect their salaries at the banks. Owning ATM cards, the salary receivers can enjoy interest on the account balance, can borrow sums of money equal to one-month pay with the soft interest rate of 0.05%/day with no mortgaged assets. Moreover, clients can exchange foreign currencies, pay water, electricity, telephone, and cable TV bills as well.
However, the current technical facilities of commercial banks have not satisfied clients. Except from Vietcombank, which has a wide ATM network, clients of other banks find it hard to withdraw money when necessary if they are far from downtown. Meanwhile, as four card alliances now exist, clients of one bank are not able to use the ATMs of all other banks, thus causing inconvenience to clients.
Source: VNE
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment