Many women members are concerned about the interest rate of loans from the TYM "charity fund"

Attending the conference were representatives of TYM fund branches and many members of the Women's Union of districts, cities and towns.

TYM representative presents 2017 performance evaluation report. Photo: Phuoc Anh

Established by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union in 1992, the TYM fund has been constantly innovating in its operations. In 2017, TYM Nghe An continued to operate with a model of 5 branches and 5 transaction offices in 14 districts, cities and towns, with a total of 132 staff, an increase of 7 staff compared to 2016.

During the year, TYM Nghe An trained and developed more than 7,900 new members, bringing the total number of members to 45,419. Notably, last year, more than 40,300 members had access to TYM loans with a total capital disbursement of more than 700 billion VND, the repayment rate reached 99.98%.

At the conference, delegates also discussed a number of issues surrounding TYM's operations. A representative of the Women's Union of Anh Son district mentioned the loan interest rate: "Currently, TYM's loan interest rate is higher than the market interest rate, which leads to comparisons and many women do not choose to access loans at TYM for this reason."

Discussing further on this issue, Ms. Tran Thi Tuyet Nhung - Deputy General Director of TYM Vietnam said that TYM is a unit under the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, but in terms of operations, TYM operates according to the provisions of the Enterprise Law, the Law on Credit Institutions and related laws... These laws clearly stipulate the functions and roles of TYM and specify how TYM applies interest rates.

“Currently, the interest rate for poor households is 0.5%/month, for near-poor households is 0.7%/month… In addition to the subjects eligible for these preferential loans, TYM is applying loans with an interest rate of 10.5%/year. We comply with the law, if we do wrong, we will be “whistled” immediately” - Ms. Tran Thi Tuyet Nhung said.

In addition to interest rates, TYM has also faced many difficulties and challenges in recent times. “In 2017, many savings and credit association networks collapsed, and many TYM members were involved in these networks,” said Ms. Nhung.

In 2018, TYM aims to survey and expand 7 communes and wards of districts, cities and towns where TYM is operating; develop 1,648 new members; disburse capital of 755 billion VND and savings balance of over 270 billion VND.