Eximbank announced "will collect reasonable rates"

At the press conference to inform about the socio-economic situation of Ho Chi Minh City on the afternoon of March 21, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) - Ho Chi Minh City Branch and representatives of the Export-Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) were present to inform about the case of the outstanding debt of VND 8.5 million in the credit card of customer PHA increasing to VND 8.8 billion after 11 years at Eximbank.

In an official statement to the press, Mr. Nguyen Ho Hoang Vu, Deputy General Director of the Export-Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank - Eximbank, said that with international credit cards, when making interest and fee policies, the market and products of similar banks were consulted to make policies.

Eximbank also considers the competitive factor so that the bank can best meet the needs of customers.

Finance - Banking - Customer owes 8.8 billion VND: Eximbank declares 'will collect reasonable amount' — Mr. Nguyen Ho Hoang Vu, Deputy General Director of Eximbank, answered at the press conference on March 21.

Mr. Vu said that the bank has regulations that in case a customer has overdue card debt, the processing officer must base on the customer's card debt situation to propose to the leadership the interest and fee collection level.

"These fees and interest rates must be approved by the competent authority before working with the customer. However, in this case, the debt settlement officer mechanically sent the notice directly to the customer without submitting it to the competent authority, causing the customer to be upset. We regret this case," said Mr. Vu.

Mr. Vu affirmed that the bank "worked with the customer, agreed and found a way to handle it reasonably and appropriately. Eximbank guarantees that it will not collect 8.8 billion but will collect a reasonable fee" but did not specify how much that "reasonable fee" is.

Also at the press conference, Mr. Vo Minh Tuan, Director of the State Bank - Ho Chi Minh City Branch, said that immediately after receiving feedback from the press, the State Bank of Vietnam sent a document requesting Eximbank to verify the incident and work with customers to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of both parties.

Eximbank has worked with customers and reported to the State Bank and the State Bank Ho Chi Minh City branch.

Regarding the question of whether calculating interest like that is reasonable or not, Mr. Tuan said that this is the way to calculate compound interest in transactions. Particularly for credit card transactions, there are also many units that calculate compound interest, while other normal banking transactions are not allowed to calculate compound interest.

"The State Bank of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City branch, will direct credit institution branches under its management to review cardholders, see if there are any customers who have not used their cards for a long time, and if similar cases arise, then proactively work to ensure the rights of customers," Mr. Tuan emphasized.

At the same time, the State Bank of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City branch, will require credit institutions to provide full information about the products and services they provide so that customers can understand, must publicize the fee schedule and only collect fees according to the publicized fee schedule.

In the interaction between customers and banks, specific information must be provided to ensure that account balance changes will reach customers (via email, SMS, etc.)

"Banks operate based on reputation. If incidents like this occur, it will more or less affect the brand and weaken the bank's competitive advantage. Therefore, we must pay attention to resolving customer benefits so that both sides can share common benefits," said the leader of the State Bank of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City branch.

Previously, Mr. PHA in Quang Ninh used Eximbank's credit card and owed more than 8.5 million VND in 2013. By 2023, this debt increased to more than 8.83 billion VND, of which the interest debt was more than 8.8 billion VND and 8.5 million VND was the principal debt.

According to Mr. HA, in 2013, he asked an employee working at the Eximbank branch in Quang Ninh to register for a credit card. But in reality, he did not receive the credit card and did not incur any expenses.

It was not until 2017, when he went to another bank to borrow money, that the staff informed him that he had bad debt at Eximbank and could not borrow money. That was when he realized he had credit debt.

During those 5 years, he also did not receive any notice from Eximbank, even in writing, that he had bad debt. Mr. PHA affirmed that the signature on the receipts for the two transactions was not his.

On Eximbank's side, the bank said that this method of calculating interest and fees is completely consistent with the agreement between the bank and the customer according to the card opening file with full signatures dated March 15, 2013.

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