Up to thirty five banks in Vietnam have continued providing free ATM services for their customers for on-us transactions, although they were allowed to collect fees from March 1.
According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s Circular 35, cardholders can now be charged a maximum of VND1,000 per transaction at ATMs owned by their own bank, with that limit set to increase to VND2,000 in 2014 and VND3,000 from 2015. Currently transactions ATMs owned by other banks can carry a fee of VND3,000 each.
The SBV said that to date 47 banks have drafted their plans for ATM fee levels for on-us transactions. Of those, 35 plan on continuing the fee exemption; two registered the fees to be collected at VND100-200 per transaction and ten others registered their fees at VND1,000 per transaction.
Banks which have decided against charging for on-us ATM transactions include TienphongBank, VIB, ABBank, DongA Bank, BaoVietBank, SCB and SHB.
A representative from TienphongBank said, “It wouldn't be hard for us to start charging on-us ATM fees, in line with the SBV’s circular, but we have continued offering our cardholders free transactions in hopes of attracting more ATM users.”
The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam said that they would maintain their fee exemptions at least through April 30.
Banks which have started collecting the ATM fees for on-us transactions include Vietcombank and SeABank.
Bui Quang Tien, Head of the SBV’s Payment Department, said the ATM fees for on-us transactions in Vietnam are medium compared to those charged in China (USD0.3) and Malaysia (USD0.33).