HÀ NỘI — The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Việt Nam (Vietcombank) has raised its service fees since the beginning of March.

Accordingly, the monthly fee of its SMS banking service increased from VNĐ8,800 to VNĐ11,000 (fees included value-added tax).

The bank has also begun charging VNĐ2,200 per transaction from other Vietcombank account holders via the mobile banking app from March 1. Vietcombank is known for conducting the greatest number of transactions through its mobile banking service in Việt Nam’s banking system.

Customers using Vietcombank’s internet banking service also have to pay VNĐ2,200 for each transaction worth less than VNĐ50 million and VNĐ5,500 for each transaction worth more than VNĐ50 million.

The fee for an inter-bank transaction of below VNĐ10 million is VNĐ7,700, and when the amount is more than VNĐ10 million, it charges 0.02 per cent of the total amount per transaction.

However, according to representatives from Vietcombank, this move only affects a small number of customers because the transaction limits for online money transfers are almost less than VNĐ100 million.

Besides adjusting the fees of some services, the bank also offers incentives for account holders who paid the account management fees, including no charges for depositing/withdrawing from accounts or transferring money among Vietcombank account holders.

As a result of the rising market demand in the recent years, the revenue from fees and retail services are becoming significant income sources for several banks.

With more than 93 million people and sharply increasing consumption, Việt Nam is considered a hot destination for the retail banking segment, which is why banks have strategically planned to boost the segment.

According to Trần Du Lịch, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, banks currently not only gain profits from lending but also from banking services, so increase in service fees is inevitable in the future. — VNS