With the central bank again rejecting their demand to be allowed to charge customers for ATM use, banks have resorted to collecting other charges like account management and invoice printing fees.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang, deputy chair of the Card Association, said 40 commercial banks had sought to introduce fees for ATM transactions and raise them in case of ATMs belonging to other banks.
But the State Bank of Vietnam said it is not yet the right time to do either.
Trinh Thuong Thuc, a senior executive at Vietcombank, said banks need to collect ATM charges because ATM cards are not profitable.
It costs around VND400 million (US$20,500) to set up an ATM while the monthly lease is VND10 million if the machine is in a prime location and VND3-5 million in other places.
Repair and maintenance can cost VND500 million a year per machine.
The director of a joint-stock bank’s card operations said the SBV should allow banks to collect fees to offset the expenses.
“The central bank regularly asks commercial banks to report on the number of ATMs they install and number of cards they issue. This means [it] wants the banks to expand their ATM networks and card issuance,” he remarked.
His bank is seeking to expand its ATM network but the board of directors has rejected the plan because of the loss on card services.
After several failed attempts to collect ATM charges, many banks are now planning to do that in other ways. Vietcombank will collect fees for ATM invoices at VND550 per transaction. But card users can also see details of their transactions on the screen and do not have to print them out.
Since March 31 Agribank has been charging fees to print transaction details (VND550 per transaction).
Commercial banks have also been conservative in expanding their ATM networks.
According to the Card Association, only 800 new ATMs were set up in the first half.
There are now 10,516 ATMs in the country while banks had issued a cumulative 23.3 million ATM cards.
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