The State Bank of Vietnam reportedly has again denied a request by banks in that country to allow them to charge their own customers fees when using their ATMs to withdraw cash. They also failed to receive permission to increase the ATM surcharge fees they charge noncustomers.
The timing is just night right for either fee-policy change, according to the central bank.
In April, the Vietnam Bank Card Association appealed to the State Bank of Vietnam to support its decision to allow banks to collect from their cardholders 1,000 dong (6 U.S. cents or 5 euro cents) per ATM transaction (
“We are not asking for the fee to be implemented this year but in 2011,” a card association official had said at that time. “The cost per ATM transaction on average is about 30 U.S. cents, and banks need to recover this cost as well as the US$20,000 that it takes to set up an ATM here.”
According to Vietnam Bridge, a local newspaper, the banks also had asked for permission to raise the surcharge fee charged to noncustomers using their machines to 5,500 dong from 3,300 dong per transaction.
The State Bank of Vietnam declined their request, saying the time was not right to collect fees on internal-network transactions or to raise surcharge fees.
This is the second time the association has asked for an ATM-fee adjustment. In November 2008, the association had appealed to the central bank to allow banks to charge their cardholders an ATM fee of 3,000 dong (see story). http://www.paymentssource.com/news/vietnamese-banks-optimistic-atm-fees-2626751-1.html However, the central bank stopped banks from the charging any fees for ATM use after receiving numerous consumer complaints (see story). http://www.paymentssource.com/news/consumer-complaints-signal-atm-fee-change-2660351-1.html
Most commercial banks are now going around the central bank by charging their cardholder in other ways. According to one media report, Vietcombank Ltd. will collect 500 dong per transaction for printing invoices for internal-network ATM transactions by the end of the year, while Agribank is charging similar fees to print balance inquiries and transaction details on ATM receipts.
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