Reducing ATM service congestion during Tet

The Lunar New Year is almost a month away, which is also the peak time for paying salaries and bonuses to employees via ATMs. Although banks have implemented many solutions to improve the quality of ATM withdrawal services, many ATMs are still having problems, causing inconvenience and trouble for customers.

ATMs are often overloaded during Tet. Photo: TRAN HAI

Demand for cash withdrawals has increased dramatically. Based on many years of experience, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) as well as commercial banks have anticipated situations that may arise in the operation of the ATM system during the Lunar New Year. Therefore, as soon as the fourth quarter of 2013 began, the banking system proactively developed and implemented cash supply plans to limit congestion at ATMs. However, despite careful preparation, incidents at the ATM system such as machines running out of money, network congestion, transaction suspension, "swallowing" cards, etc. still occurred.

Statistics from the State Bank of Vietnam show that the entire system currently has more than 57.2 million domestic cards and 5.7 million international cards. Vietcombank Deputy General Director Dao Minh Tuan commented that the number of ATM cards in the market is not stable, in fact it is still increasing, which means that transactions are also increasing. Specifically, at Vietcombank, in 2013, there were 200 more ATMs compared to 1,800 in the previous year.

Currently, the ATM network system only meets the needs of customers on normal days. During Tet, because businesses, especially in industrial parks and export processing zones, rush to pay salaries, wages, and bonuses to workers in a short period of time, the number of people withdrawing cash at ATMs increases dramatically. Director of the Treasury Issuance Department (SBV) Nguyen Chi Thanh said that just counting the month of Tet alone, the amount of cash deficit is equal to the whole year. For example, during the year, the whole country had a cash deficit of 70,000 billion VND, and in January (Tet month) alone, there was a deficit of 70,000 billion VND. This shows that the amount of cash spent during Tet is quite high. Moreover, the New Year and Lunar New Year this year are quite close together, it is predicted that the demand for cash is very large, the amount of cash deficit at this time may be even larger.

This causes local overload at some ATM points, especially in densely populated areas with high cash receipts and disbursements and many ATMs such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh or areas with concentrated export processing zones and high-tech zones such as Dong Nai, Binh Duong..., the situation of ATMs running out of cash occurs quite often. According to the explanation of banks, the demand for cash at an ATM is on average about 500 million VND/machine/day, but during Tet like in 2013, at some ATMs in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the demand for funds is up to 800 million VND to 1 billion VND/machine/day and must ensure enough denominations to meet different needs of customers. With the frequency of transactions skyrocketing at the end of the year, sometimes increasing by more than 300% to 400%, it will be difficult to avoid network congestion.

Vietcombank Deputy General Director Dao Minh Tuan also said: Previously, customers who were Vietcombank cardholders mostly made transactions on the bank's ATMs. But now a large number of Vietcombank cardholders spend on ATMs of other banks. This helps to somewhat limit the overload at ATMs. Normally, the bank's ATMs replenish funds once a day, but during Tet, Vietcombank proactively replenishes funds three times a day, sometimes even six times a day. In places where there are a large number of workers, such as industrial parks, who often withdraw money at one time, along with Vietcombank, other commercial banks have also coordinated to concentrate dozens of ATMs so that when one bank's ATM runs out of money, another bank's ATM will have money. But the ATM system still cannot avoid problems because the number of customers withdrawing money is too large, at the same time with a large amount of money withdrawn. In addition, another reason pointed out by bank leaders is that in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, about 15 days before Tet, traffic is congested, making travel very difficult, slowing down the progress of recharging funds to ATMs.

Promoting non-cash payments To overcome the overload at ATMs, the representative of Vietcombank's leadership also affirmed that incidents, if they arise, are unlikely to occur in the long term and will be resolved soon because the bank has a plan to prepare cash early and assign staff to be ready to receive funds. In addition, security and technical work have also been strengthened.

Notably, due to concerns about people's increased demand for payment and cash withdrawal during Tet, this year the State Bank has also proactively developed cash supply plans to meet the demand in both quantity and denomination structure; directed the organization of cash transfers to State Bank branches in provinces and cities to increase year-end reserves. Recently, the State Bank has directed commercial banks to coordinate with businesses to extend the time for year-end salary and bonus payments. And to avoid the situation of ATMs lacking cash supply, affecting people's cash withdrawals, the State Bank has surveyed provinces and cities with large cash deficits to provide enough cash for commercial banks to meet people's cash withdrawal needs.

In reality, increasing the amount of cash, increasing the number of times of fund transfer or installing more ATMs to meet the demand for cash withdrawals during Tet are only temporary solutions. In the long term, non-cash payment options such as purchasing goods through card acceptance points (POS), paying via the internet, etc. are being targeted by banks as well as customers.

According to Vietinbank Deputy General Director Pham Huy Khang, the bank has developed a system of units accepting card payments in all fields, industries and professions such as Big C supermarket system, Nguyen Kim electronics supermarket, restaurant and hotel system, Vinasun taxi system, paying electricity bills, telecommunications bills by card at home,... In addition, Vietinbank also regularly cooperates with units to build many discount and promotion programs for customers paying by card.

In addition, many banks are now connecting ATMs via Banknetvn and VNBC, so people can proactively withdraw money at different ATMs. The Vietnam Bank Card Association also advises that, in addition to solutions to enhance service from banks, cardholders can also proactively reduce inconvenience in ATM transactions at the end of the year by avoiding withdrawing money or making transactions during peak hours from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day. Experience from previous years also shows that the days from December 26 to 28 are "peak" times at ATMs, so cardholders need to plan ahead and limit transactions at ATMs. At the same time, banks also recommend that cardholders should not continue to enter the password if they enter the wrong password more than twice because if they continue to enter the wrong password, their personal accounts will be locked; they should contact the transaction office of the bank where the card was registered for staff guidance, to avoid having their personal accounts locked during Tet.

According to NDĐT