Waves of objections against Vietcombank's service fee rise

Many Vietcombank customers threatened to switch to other banks if the service fee changes

With over 10 million individual clients, Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) ran into great objections from the public, who grouped up on social networking sites like Facebook and online forums to protest the bank’s latest alteration of service fees.

The bank’s representative noted the new service fee would come along with countless benefits, such as new service options and partnerships with hundreds of goods and commodity providers which could in turn reduce online transaction times. However, these promises have not soothed the public.

Specifically, the bank’s service fee modification revolved around electronic banking transactions, such as internet and mobile banking, due to the rapidly growing number of online transfers.

Nguyen Tri Hieu, a Vietnamese finance-banking expert, highlighted that a commercial bank would rather gain revenue from its service performance and the credit segment than simply from the credit segment, which entirely matches the bank's restructuring scheme as well as enhances its sustainable development.

Despite agreeing that a commercial bank has to charge clients after services rendered to alleviate dependence on credit, Hieu further added that the fees in Vietnam are fairly high in comparison to other banks in the region and even US-based commercial banks.

Bui Quang Tin, founder of the entrepreneurial school BizLight, pointed out that Vietcombank’s raising service fees should not be so much of a surprise since demand for banking services has been growing steadily over time, making it imperative for banks to invest into system security and transaction performance.

He further added that the bank’s service fee adjustment should result in stronger account security as well as less “savings-vanishing” incidents like the recent case at Eximbank.