Adjusting ATM cash withdrawal fees

The State Bank has just issueddraftCircular regulating domestic debit card service fees to solicit opinions from organizations and individuals.

According to the State Bank, the specific fees will be: Card issuance fee from 0 - 100,000 VND/card; annual fee from 0 - 60,000 VND/card/year.

For ATM transactions, the State Bank proposes to only charge account inquiry fees (no printing of documents) for off-network transactions from 0 - 500 VND/transaction, and not charge account inquiry fees for on-network transactions.

The fee for printing account statements or printing internal account information documents ranges from 100 - 500 VND/transaction; and for external accounts from 300 - 800 VND/transaction.

The notable point of this draft is that the State Bank proposes to collect cash withdrawal fees for domestic ATM transactions with fees expected to increase gradually each year. Specifically, from March 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013, the fee for domestic cash withdrawal will be 0 - 1,000 VND/transaction; from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, the fee will be 0 - 2,000 VND/transaction and from January 1, 2015 onwards, the fee will be 0 - 3,000 VND/transaction.

For off-net withdrawal fees, the maximum fee is 3,000 VND/transaction. The maximum transfer fee is 15,000 VND/transaction.

The State Bank said that this is the framework that the State Bank has built in the direction of regulating the maximum fees that card-issuing banks are allowed to collect from cardholders. With this fee framework, card-issuing banks are entitled to proactively apply fees that are suitable to their business strategies and characteristics, but must be within the fee framework prescribed by the State Bank.

Card issuers are not allowed to collect additional fees beyond the issued Card Service Fee Schedule and are not allowed to collect fees from cardholders for unsuccessful card transactions or erroneous card transactions not due to the cardholder's fault.

Publicly post card service fee schedule

Also according to the draft Circular, card issuers must publicly post the card service fee schedule in accordance with regulations. At least 15 days before applying the card service fee schedule (newly issued or adjusted, supplemented), the card issuer must send its card service fee schedule to the State Bank for reporting and monitoring.

The State Bank said: Regulating domestic debit card service fees is to harmonize the interests between customers and banks, ensuring that fees are gradually appropriate for customers and helping banks cover some of the costs of investing and operating the card service supply system, providing motivation to continue investing, improving service quality and developing card payment services in Vietnam.

It is expected that the above regulations will take effect from March 1, 2013.

(According to government)QN