In Vietnam, banking deposit has been considered as a safe investment with good profitability. However, many claims made by depositors about disappearing deposit balance concern customers.
Still go with bank
To people, bank deposit is still a good investment providing them with annual interest income and it’s nice to have some extra income for spending. Customer’s demand for deposit product has been huge.
After a couple of customers recently claim losing their money up to billion dong when depositing at banks, a number of customer and deposit volume has gone down. A survey done at a few banks has shown that deposit volume has drop down 10~15%.
However, financial experts see this as a normal consequence when banks went through troubles with customers. They also say such trend will not extend for long because banks are making effort to fix and bank deposit is still the safest investment product.
Ms. Luu Thi Nhu Y (35 years old, district 1) says: “I still trust the banking system because they keep money safe while paying interest. To sleep at night my wise is to go with banks having long-history and good reputation. Bank staffs are enthusiastic to help, but we-customers need to proactively manage our account”.
After 40 years depositing at bank, Ms. Dao Thi Hai (62 years old, Tan Phu district) says: “I have always trusted our family money with the bank. I think every bank has it’s own issues. The most important thing is a bank can look into the problem and improve it’s management. If a bank is trying to get better, why not using it?”
A customer in Eximbank – Mr. Tran Quoc Khanh (Director of KAT Media, district 1) says: “I have both corporate account and individual account with Eximbank. I have been using the bank for 4 years for bank transfer, credit card, savings, loan, etc. Media has run news about deposit claims to Eximbank, but I am confident in my caution when making transactions with the bank and therefore have kept using it. Furthermore, I have seen Eximbank to take actions in improving their supervision of deposit activities”
Enhance supervision
To assure customers, many banks e.g. Vietcombank, Maritimebank, Sacombank, etc, have launched the service allowing customers to mobile track their accounts. Customers will receive notice updating account movement and get to know if the balance on their saving book matches to the bank’s data.
Eximbank right after the claims has implemented several solutions to enhance risk management and to secure customer’s deposits. Among the solutions is to offer biometric verification when individuals applying for power of attorney; to kick-off brand director rotation; to deter regulation violation by introducing sanction on violator; to introduce IB, MB, SMS banking, etc. to customer for account tracking.
Eximbank set 2018 total asset target at 178 trillion (+19%) and deposit balance at 148 trillion (+26%), and profit at 1.600 billion dong, 1.5 times 2017 profit.
Eximbank’s representative shares: “In 2018, we will focus on major projects of technology and re-organization, to set-up foundation for business acceleration in coming years. At the same time, Eximbank will concentrate on solving the NPL and increase fund available for business”.
