VietNamNet Bridge – Commercial banks believe that retail banking is a new promising playing field that will produce high profits. But there have been complaints from clients about service quality at local banks.

Ta Quang Dung, the former director of a securities company, complained to Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon about the service quality he received from HSBC Vietnam bank.

The problem is that Dung can no longer borrow money from any banks in Vietnam after HSBC put his name on a list of clients with bad debts on the database of the State Bank’s Credit Information Center.

HSBC and Dung have argued about this half a year, but they have not found a solution for the dispute.

According to CIC, the number of clients, businesses and individuals who filed appeals against the listing of their names on the CIC’s blacklist has increased two to three times over last year.

These complaints are seen as an important indicator of the development of the retail banking market. Clients lodge complaints partly because bank workers are not professional enough, and partly because Vietnamese remain unfamiliar with banking retail services.

Bankers are now making heavy investments to develop the retail banking sector. The middle-class banks including Techcombank, VPBank, VIB and Maritime Bank, and northern banks over the last two years have been marching towards the south. In bankers’ thoughts, the north is the capital mobilization market, while the south is the service market.   

It is now the time for banks to employ more workers, who are in charge of delivering leaflets and contacting individual clients to introduce their services. They could also use “call center workers”.

What the banks need to do is to develop new consumer habits, provide card services and encourage payment via cards, especially payment for repeated consumption behaviors such as buying petrol and food.

Sanjoy Sen, a senior executive of ANZ Asia Pacific, said the bank has over 1,000 call center workers in Vietnam. In HCM City, many private companies providing call center workers to banks have been established.

MasterCard Indochina Director Arn Vogels is optimistic about the future of the Vietnamese market. Vietnamese will see e-wallet, e-cards and other electronic payment methods, while plastic cards will no longer be needed, he said.

He believes that Vietnam has a good technology infrastructure foundation and it only needs new payment technology in the mobile market, and the readiness of banks and telcos, to take off.

Sanjoy Sen of ANZ, who believes in a bright future of the Vietnamese retail banking market, said many challenges are still ahead.

The biggest challenge is the rapid increase of young people. How can banks access the clients in the right way? Is it enough to open more and more bank branches?

In fact, bank branches are just one channel through which banks can access clients. Bankers also need to approach clients through e-banks, via phones, via internet, or by meeting clients face to face.

According to the banker, high quality and diversified services will be the key factors for banks to win customers’ hearts.

TBKTSG