The demand for cash during the Lunar New year holiday, or Tet, is forecast not to  be as high as that of last year and the central bank has already prepared a large volume of cash accordingly, a central bank official said. Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the HCMC branch of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), said large volumes of cash have been delivered to head offices of local banks to meet... 

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) continued on Tuesday pumping nearly VND2.4 trillion into the banking system via open market operations (OMO) after a VND3.5 trillion injection via a tender on Monday, according to local banks. The central bank maintained the interest rate at 8% per annum for the seven-day tenor on the open market. However, SBV from now to the end of this week has to withdraw over VND23... 

Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) on Wednesday paid a total of VND5 trillion for clients withdrawing their deposits prior to maturity, but the bank’s leader stated ACB would keep operating with sustainable financial capability. Do Minh Toan, deputy general director of ACB who now serves as caretaker CEO, said the bank on Tuesday had mobilized VND3 trillion worth of government bonds from the open market... 

Vietnam’s benchmark five-year bonds rose, pushing the yield to a two-month low, on speculation banks are buying debt rather than lending money in the interbank market after the arrest of a prominent bank investor. The dong climbed. Nguyen Duc Kien, who helped found Asia Commercial Bank, the nation’s fourth-biggest lender by market value, was arrested Aug. 20 after he allegedly “conducted business... 

ACB remains stable and has abundant cash for withdrawal: Toai HCMC – The central bank on Tuesday pumped trillions of Vietnam dong into Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) to help it cope with massive cash withdrawals after former ACB vice chairman Nguyen Duc Kien had been arrested the previous night. Huge stacks of money delivered The central bank’s branch in HCMC on Tuesday provided ACB with trillions... 

The deposit interest rate has dropped sharply to 9 percent per annum, which means the lower earnings for depositors. However, banks do not fear that the capital to be mobilized would decrease, because those who have idle money, would not have better choices than depositing their money at banks. Nguyen Dinh Hoan in the Dinh Cong new residential quarter in Hanoi feels sad when the deposit interest rates... 

* SBV to launch card switching center by year-end Bank cards are mainly used for cash withdrawal in the country, with the total withdrawn money accounting for 82% of the total transaction value conducted via the ATM system, said the Vietnam Bank Card Association. The association stated bank cards are not used as an efficient non-cash payment instrument. Instead, banks must store a huge sum of cash... 

The cash volume withdrawn from Automated Teller Machines (ATM) systems of local banks in January is estimated to hit some VND60 trillion, four times higher than other previous months, said Smartlink Card Services Joint Stock Co. The upsurge is attributed to strong cash demand during the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, said Smartlink, which operates the payment clearing system connecting 35 member... 

Half of the more than 32 million ATM cards issued by banks in the country are not used, according to the Vietnam Bank Cards Association (VBCA). An official from the State Bank of Vietnam’s HCM City office said on the condition of anonymity that the number of cards issued could be even higher since a large number of unused ones may not be counted. Yet the number kept growing as banks continued... 

Despite the great efforts by service providers, the payment via mobile phones (Mobile Payment) is still far from becoming popular in Vietnam, because Vietnamese people still prefer using cash in payment. Bankers, telcoms launching services massively In Vietnam, the concept of making payment via mobile phones was first heard when Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) allowed clients to use mobile phones to query...