Employees of weak banks that have just been forced to transfer, such as MBV, DongA Bank, GPBank, VCBNeo (the new name of CB), have for many years been accustomed to not receiving Lunar New Year bonuses like other banks, since being put under special control 10 years ago.

With the State Bank completing the mandatory transfer of these four banks before the Lunar New Year 2025, workers at these banks expect to have a different Tet than every year.

However, sharing with VietNamNet, an employee with more than 10 years of experience working at a "zero-dong" bank said: "Hopefully next year, if we make a profit and avoid accumulated losses, we will get a Tet bonus like colleagues at other banks. But this year, there is still no bonus. Although it is sad, in general, we understand because the bank has just transferred to a new bank not long ago. We encourage each other that having a job at this time is lucky."

At a bank under special control, SCB, on the last working day before Tet holiday, employees still wait for the "ting ting" sound of the 13th month salary.

Meanwhile, Big4 banking groups such as BIDV, Vietcombank, VietinBank and Agribank give Tet bonuses based on each branch and KPI completion level.

A long-time employee at BIDV said that the branch that completed excellently in 2024 will have the highest Tet bonus. Accordingly, each branch determines the bonus level according to coefficients of 1, 2, 3. The highest bonus level is determined to be 3 months of income.

“The bonus fund is for each branch and is allocated in 6-month and 12-month periods. In addition, each BIDV branch will receive an additional bonus of VND2 million and the headquarters will receive an additional bonus of VND5 million/person,” revealed a BIDV employee.

At Agribank, the Tet bonus is considered the lowest in the big4 group when each employee receives 1 month of income. However, there will be other income under different names.

“In addition, at the end of the year, each employee receives additional “other expenses” such as overtime pay, productivity bonuses, etc., so in reality, income during Tet is quite good,” said an Agribank employee.

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Vietcombank employees can receive Lunar New Year bonuses of up to hundreds of millions of dong. Photo: Hoang Ha.

At Vietcombank, a department head said that bonuses of up to 6-8 months' salary are completely real, depending on the branch.

Previously, Vietcombank paid out a third-quarter bonus at the end of December 2024 and 1 month's salary for the New Year bonus.

According to an accountant who used to work at 3 Big4 banks, the Tet bonus depends on the ranking and classification of each branch. The first-class branch will have the highest bonus, in which excellent employees (class A) will of course also receive the highest bonus, even up to 7-8 months of salary.

However, if the branch is ranked 2 or 3 and the employees are only ranked B or C, the difference in Tet bonus compared to rank A will be very large. Even if the branch has high bad debt, the employees will only receive 1 month of basic salary, in some cases, they will only receive 75% of the basic salary.

“Big 4 banks give bonuses based on the business results of each branch, salary fund and distributed welfare fund. Where can ineffective or newly established branches get salary fund, bonus or large distribution to share? So often information about Tet bonuses of banks is released by people selling courses to prepare for Big 4 entrance exams.”

At private banks, TPBank rewards 6-8 months of salary based on KPI completion. The basic salary at this bank ranges from 15-30 million VND. In addition to the basic salary, TPBank employees also receive KPI-based bonuses and insurance sales commissions.

After drastically streamlining its apparatus, LPBank also announced a Tet bonus on the last working day of the old year, the bonus is 1.5 months' salary.

However, the above figure is only a “provisional payment”. After the Lunar New Year, LPBank employees will receive additional bonuses from the competition evaluation along with bonuses according to the criteria set by the bank.

At MB, the bonus for outstanding employees can be up to hundreds of millions of dong. With the Tet bonus depending on the year's ranking, MB employees this year generally receive higher bonuses than last year.

HDBank employees are also happy this Tet holiday when each person receives a bonus of up to 3 months of income.

Some banks calculate bonuses based on the STI (short-term incentive) principle, which makes employees not even understand how to calculate the specific bonus amount. However, according to an employee at VIB, one of the banks that apply this calculation method, VIBer's Tet bonus is two months' salary, plus additional bonuses if employees perform excellently.

In general, the Tet bonus level still depends on the overall business results of the bank. For small banks with thin profits and lower average monthly income than the industry average, the Tet bonus is usually only 1-1.5 months of salary. Meanwhile, for large banks with "huge" profits, the bonus level will be larger, but it is also a worthy recognition for the whole year of dedication of the employees.