The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has urged commercial banks to make sure that the cash supply at their ATMs is enough to meet the increasing demand over Tet.
They are also required to deal with customer complaints and ensure smooth operations of ATMs. Banks have assigned staff to supervise ATM networks.
According to many banks, when Tet is nearing, ATM transactions are 4 to 5 fold higher than usual.
It has been a long-running problem during Tet for ATM users to not be able to access money, or find the machines only showing error messages.
Mrs. Thu Hong, one customer in Hanoi said that the problem is not limited to single ATMs, but also those in front of bank branches. "The banks say that they are having technical problems, but we all know they have just run out of money."
Mr. Tran Hung in Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi, said, “I haven't been able to withdraw money for almost a month. Since my company pays me through bank transfer I've had to withdraw that money from an ATM at another bank, incurring a fee of VND3,300 for every VND2 million (USD95.2)."
According to Tien Phong Newspaper, at 6:30 p.m on December 30, rows of workers at Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone were queuing to withdraw money from ATMs there, many saying that in previous years ATMs faced technical problems at this time.
