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Banks ordered to provide public forex services
The State Bank of Viet Nam has asked credit institutions licensed to provide foreign exchange services to sell foreign currencies in cash to citizens.
According to Document 2033/NHNN-QLNH sent to commercial banks last Saturday, the central bank's Governor Nguyen Van Giau called on commercial banks to help citizens, who have a legal demand for foreign currencies, open international debit and credit cards for spending money abroad.
The document was issued once the black foreign currencies market halted operations last week, posing a challenge to citizens in need of other currencies.
According to regulations aimed at tightening control over foreign exchange activities, people in need of foreign currencies for legitimate purposes can buy at commercial banks.
However, many individuals complained that commercial banks have refused to sell in cash.
This was caused by banks' foreign currency supply shortages.
Cash transactions were also more costly for the banks to process.
The SBV is now also considering several solutions to make it easier for individuals to purchase foreign currencies at reasonable prices from banks in an effort to get rid of black market operations all together.
Tran Phuong Binh, General Director of DongA Bank, said the bank's Viet Nam dong deposit increased by VND10 billion last Friday, while US dollar deposits fell by $500,000.
People withdrew and sold dollars, and deposited money in dong to cope with the tighter forex market. Meanwhile, a leader of Eximbank said dollar deposits had increased sharply in recent days, but the demand for dollar loans had not risen correlatively.
The bank had to adjust the dollar deposit rate down from 5.5 per cent to 5.35 per cent per year early last week.
The State Bank denied a rumour that it would tighten the forex market by asking individuals to specify the legitimate origin of their foreign currency.
Because of the rumour, more people began selling dollars to store dong, and others were depositing dollars into banks to avoid being penalised or having their money seized.
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