Eximbank is sorry, what about the 8.8 billion dong profit?

And Mr. Nguyen Ho Hoang Vu frankly acknowledged that "the bank's debt recovery officers were very rigid, not following procedures but sending out a very mechanical notice, leading to frustration from customers."

Mr. Vu stated that the bank has been actively working with the customer. On March 19th, representatives from Eximbank met and had a frank discussion with the customer in a spirit of cooperation, understanding, and sharing, agreeing to coordinate in resolving the issue and ensuring the rights of both parties are protected as soon as possible.

To prevent similar incidents from occurring, Eximbank representatives have notified its branches and transaction offices that they will not debit SMS banking fees or account management fees for customer payment accounts that have been inactive for a long time, have not had any transactions, and have a zero balance.

Customers who wish to close their accounts do not have to pay the outstanding fees; instead, the branch or transaction office will proactively review and process their request free of charge.

This move shows that Eximbank has realized the absurdly unreasonable way in which interest was calculated, leading to a customer being charged 8.8 billion VND in interest on an 8.5 million VND loan after 11 years.

Furthermore, Eximbank has recognized its shortcomings in failing to promptly notify customers of balance changes and acknowledges the stubbornness and unreasonable handling of matters by some of its staff, leading to the issue remaining unresolved for many years. In short: Eximbank has realized that the bank is partly at fault in this matter.

In a related statement, Vo Minh Tuan, Director of the State Bank of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City branch, made a profound observation: "Banks operate on integrity; allowing incidents like this to occur will inevitably affect their brand and weaken their competitive advantage."

And in fact, what has happened shows that Eximbank's reputation has suffered greatly, even though the truth about the 8.8 billion VND in interest and 8.5 million VND in principal owed by the customer is still unclear and unresolved.

As evidence, many Eximbank cardholders have contacted the bank to check their balances, debts, or interest rates… A series of customers have proactively contacted the bank to stop transactions, terminate contracts, and cancel cards, all with the same answer... “no need.”

More accurately, they don't trust Eximbank, fearing that Eximbank's interest calculation method might lead to similar consequences for them one day.

Therefore, to regain customer trust and mitigate brand damage, simply issuing the above announcement is insufficient. Eximbank should waive the 8.8 billion VND interest debt for the customer; and at the same time, invite relevant authorities to verify and clarify the origin of the 8.5 million VND principal debt.

If the debt wasn't due to the customer, Eximbank needs to write it off and publicly apologize to the customer to demonstrate responsibility and credibility; so that customers can trust Eximbank's services without worrying about being charged such unreasonable interest.

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