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Businesses wanting dollars as banks close doors on them
Import companies complain that they have to buy dollars from banks at black market prices or have to pay additional fees for dollar deals.
The director of a private business sent a letter to the press, complaining that the small banks he had contacted told him that they did not have dollars to sell. Bigger banks said they would sell dollars to him at quoted prices, but added that if they had to buy dollars from other sources to sell to him, he would have to accept the prices at which they bought the dollars.
The director said that some other banks frankly said that they had to sell dollars at prices higher than the quoted prices, explaining that they themselves had to buy dollars at high prices on the interbank market, and they had to re-sell at high prices to ensure profit. The interbank market dollar price has surged to VND17,900/US$1.
Commercial banks are now quoting prices at VND16,200-16,300/US$1, but in fact, they are selling at VND18,400/US$1, equal to the black market price.
The director of a chemical import company related that at first, when his staff went to a bank to ask to buy dollars, the bank official said the bank did not have dollars to sell. However, the official then said that if the company still wanted to buy dollars, it needed to sign a document, accepting to pay an additional fee, called the ‘foreign currency arrangement fee’.
Especially, automobile importers these days cannot purchase dollars to make payments to exporters even if they accept purchasing dollars at high prices. The director of a HCM City-based luxury car import company said that though he has close relationships with bankers, he still has to buy dollars at prices 15% higher than the quoted prices.
Meanwhile, bankers have denied the accusation that they are selling dollars at black market prices. Pham Quang Thang, Deputy General Director of Techcombank, said that all the transactions the bank had signed with clients had been carried out at quoted prices. Other bankers, in talks with the press, also confirmed that they were selling dollars at quoted prices, which are at most 1% higher than the exchange rate announced by the State Bank of Vietnam.
However, some bankers have admitted selling dollars at prices higher than the allowed levels.
The director of a joint stock bank said that banks themselves cannot buy dollars from official sources at low prices. Export companies, which have dollars to sell, always set high price levels equal to black market prices. Therefore, he said, banks have to push up dollar sale prices.
Under the current regulations, the dollar prices quoted by commercial banks must not be 1% higher or lower than the price announced by the State Bank of Vietnam. However, banks still try to dodge regulations with swap or option contracts to make transactions at prices higher than quoted prices.
Instead of selling dollars directly to clients, banks use roundabout ways. For example, in order to sell $10,000 to businesses at VND18,000/US$1, banks will sell EUR 6,428.57 at VND28,000/EUR1, and then the euro will be converted into dollars. Businesses will have to pay fees for the transactions.
Observers also say that if buyers don’t accept paying high prices, they will not be able to purchase dollars at this moment, when demand is bigger than supply.
VNN
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