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Banks face penalty for gouging on dollar sales
The State Bank of Viet Nam will penalise banks that are selling US dolalr at prices higher than the ceiling rate by imposing other charges, a central bank official says.
Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the SBV branch in HCM City, said all banks found selling the dollar to enterprises and individuals at prices higher than the ceiling rate under any form would be accused of violating the Government's foreign exchange regulations, and penalised accordingly.
From now until the end of the year, the central bank would take several measures including launching inspections to discover and prevent these violations, he said.
Minh's announcement follows complaints that banks are collecting extra fees from firms buying the dollar.
Many HCM City-based enterprises importing production materials have said that they've found it hard to buy the dollar from banks at the officially quoted prices.
Banks sold the dollar at a price higher than the announced spot rate, they said.
Dang Ngan Ha, owner of a fashion company in the city, said she needed US$1 million to import materials for production for the Tet (Lunar New year) festival season.
"Banks quote us VND19,900 per dollar, VND400 higher than the rate officially announced on paper. This means that we will have to pay an extra VND400 million ($20,000) to get $1 million," Ha said.
"The extra payment is taken as service fees including those for checking and counting the money, trading files, foreign exchange transactions and financial consulting," she added.
An owner of a paper import company said he needed to import 7,000 tonnes of paper worth $7 million this month.
But with the extra fees charged by the bank, the company would lose VND2.8 billion to buy the needed the dollar, he said.
"Worse still, when we signed the import contract to open the L/C, the dollar was priced at VND19,500. Now, when the payment due date comes, the bank that we buy the dollar from is quoting VND19,900. At such rates, we are sure of making losses even before our paper is sold," he said.
For their part, the banks say they are asking for higher than officially quoted rates because the dollar they purchase from export enterprises are negotiated very close to the market rate.
Banks, in fact, can only make profits of VND5 to10 for every dollar they sell, said an employee of a major commercial joint stock bank in District 1 who did not want to be named.
Minh said that the central bank has in the past punished a few banks for trading in the greenback at higher prices than prescribed rates.
The central bank allows a five per cent trading band on the rate that it fixes for foreign currencies.
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