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Issuing cards first, installing ATMs later
A lot of people queuing in front of ATMs is a common scene in big cities at the end of the month. The problem lies in the fact that banks have issued a lot of cards but not installed a lot of ATMs.
Khoa, who lives in district 2 in HCM City, said it is difficult to get money from ATMs at the end of the month as there are very few Vietcombank ATMs in the district. He used to go from his home in Binh Trung Dong ward to Metro An Phu to draw money, but the ATM there broke down.
According to Le Huynh Ha, Head of Vietcombank Card Centre, there are 360 ATMs of Vietcombank and other banks of the same card alliance, Smartlink, in HCM City, including 300 ATMs owned by Vietcombank. Most of the ATMs are located in the central area.
In district 2, Vietcombank only has three ATMs at Metro An Phu, An Phu Supermart and Cat Loi Company. Cardholders can draw money from two other places, VIB Bank’s ATM on Tran Nao street and MB’s ATM at Cat Lai port.
In district 9, clients also have two choices only with the Vietcombank ATM at Co-op Mart Thu Duc and VP Bank’s ATM at the District 9 Hospital.
Vietcombank does not have ATMs in districts far from the centre like Cu Chi or Nha Be so clients can only draw money from the ATMs owned by Southern Bank and Saigon Bank in the district.
As for the VNBC card alliance, the alliance’s members have more ATMs in distant areas than Smartlink’s members. There are 11 ATMs of VNBC in district 2, including 10 owned by East Asia Bank (EAB), and one by MHB. Binh Tan district has 15 VNBC ATMs, including two by Saigonbank and 13 by EAB.
Issuing many cards, installing few ATMs
Commercial banks have joined hands in card alliances, which allow banks to use each other’s material facilities. There are now four card alliances: VNBC (EAB, MHB, Saigonbank and Habubank), 20-member Smartlink (Vietcombank, VIB Bank, VP Bank, OCB, Eximbank, MB), 7-member BankNet headed by Agribank, and the alliance of Sacombank and ANZ.
The four alliances are different in scale due to the different levels of investments. Smartlink has 1,700 ATMs and 3mil cards, of which Vietcombank alone has 1,100 ATMs and 2.5mil cards. VNBC has 926 ATMs and 2.2mil, of which 752 ATMs and nearly 2mil cards belong to EAB. BankNet has some 3,000 ATMs, most of which belong to Agribank.
According to Nguyen Tu Anh, Director of Smartlink Joint Stock Company, many banks agreed to join the alliances because they wanted to issue cards but didn’t want to install ATMs. Their clients have to draw money from the ATMs of other banks of the same alliance.
One ATM for 5,000 new cards
Huynh Song Hao, Deputy Director of Vietcombank HCM City branch, said that the number of Vietcombank ATMs increases by 40% every year. However, the bank is still facing difficulties in installing ATMs in areas far from the centre due to many reasons.
General Director of EAB Tran Phuong Binh said that EAB is planning to install a great number of ATMs at petrol stations, where a lot of people come and go. Moreover, the bank is also going to install ATMs in far-away areas where there are a lot of card holders like industrial zones.
In order to settle the lack of ATMs, Smartlink has asked its members to install one more ATM for every 5,000 cards to be issued.
VNN
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