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Thirsty for capital, banks try all possible ways to attract depositors
Small commercial banks are witnessing tens of billions of dong withdrawn from the banks every day, since the day the State Bank forced banks to apply the ceiling deposit interest rate of 14 percent per annum. Therefore, they have to look for many other ways to attract deposits to ease their thirst for capital.
Low interest rates cannot retain depositors
Right in early September 2011, when the State Bank of Vietnam threatened to heavily punish the banks which pay more than 14 percent per annum in interest rates for deposits, small banks understood that they would have to apply a lot of tricks to compete with big banks, which have more prestige and experiences, in attracting capital.
One of the tricks used by small banks was offering high interest rates for short term deposits. Some banks once offered the high interest rate of 13.8 percent for one, two, three, four, five and six day term deposits, and 14 percent for one week deposit.
After realizing that this was a trick to attract customers, the State Bank of Vietnam decided to set up a cap on the interest rates banks can pay for short term deposits (less than one month) at 6 percent per annum. The new policy has “made banks’ wings clipped”, because they cannot attract depositors with high interest rates any more.
As a result, a lot of people, who have idle money, have decided to withdraw money from the banks once the interest rates are no more attractive, either to deposit at bigger and more prestigious banks, or to inject the money in other investment channels.
Some small bankers in Hanoi told the Vietnam Economic Forum (VEF) that every day, each of them sees 20 billions of dong gone. As a result, in order to have capital and ensure their liquidity, the banks have to borrow money from other banks on the interbank market, at high interest rates.
Raincoats, gymnasium cards and interest rates
In order to persuade people to keep deposits at their banks, the banks have to apply all possible measures to lure customers.
Big depositors, which have deposits worth hundreds of millions of dong at banks, are always the special clients for banks to take care.
The owner of a small business located on Vu Ngoc Phan Street in Hanoi said that someday she received five calls from different bank branches, where she once deposited money.
The bank officers called to say that they wanted to meet her, and just after she informed them where she was, the officers would come to see her with small gifts, which could be a raincoat, or a backpack. After giving the gifts, the officers would present about the banks’ services and promotion campaigns, and persuaded her to deposit money at their banks or call on her friends to deposit money.
“Since banks are thirsty for capital, depositors nowadays are considered the “Gods”,” she said.
Especially, a bank branch in Dong Da district in Hanoi even gave her a card which allows her to attend artistic gymnastics courses at the biggest fitness center in Hanoi, worth 2 million dong. The surprise here is that she never deposited money at the bank branch before.
Another big depositor related that he was given a coupon for a lunch at a well known restaurant in Hanoi. As for big clients, banks always have more special “caretaking regime”, offering valuable gifts, which could be handbags and expensive cosmetics.
Especially, some banks even use “beauty trap” to convince people to deposit money. Beautiful officers who have communication skills have been assigned to communicate with clients to keep loyal clients of the banks.
A bank branch on Tran Thai Tong Street in Hanoi has asked all their officers to seek capital. A car driver of the bank branch said he has to find 1.5 billion dong in capital by the end of the year as per the request of the bank branch manager. Therefore, he has called relatives to persuade them to deposit money at his bank.
Tran Thuy
vietnamnet
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