This is the fourth time since last year banks have proposed telecoms operators to cut charges for banking services via SMS. (Photo: cafef.vn)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Telecoms operators still have not cut charges for SMSservices in banking, even though the banks have proposedreductions several times.
The VietnamBanks Association has proposed for the fourth time since last yearthat the Ministry of Information and Communications makes moves to lowerthe charges.
Theassociation said that the banking sector had reduced customer supportfees in order to effectively implement the Government’s direction on tasksand solutions to remove difficulties for production and business and promotethe disbursement of public investment and ensure social order duringthe pandemic.
However, thebanking sector had not been supported by partners to reduce fees, it said.
It said thatthe SMS charges which telecommunications businesses were applying to banks were2-3 times higher than those for individuals.
Accordingly,MobiFone and VinaPhone were charging 820 VND (0.035 USD) per SMS forfinancial transactions and 500 VND for ads and customer care messages.
Viettel’s feewas 785 VND per SMS for financial transactions and 500 VND for others.
Meanwhile,charges for SMS between individuals were around 250-300 VND each.
Theassociation added that the current SMS charges were too high, addingit was necessary to lower them to encourage the use of cashless payments.
Theassociation said that SMS banking fees collected by banks were currently lowand only collected once per month, ranging from 5,500 VND to 11,000 VND permonth.
Many bankswere adopting free policies to increase technology utilities for customers andaccelerate the conversion to online transactions, it said.
Each moneytransfer or payment transaction needs to send at least two messages tocustomers.
Each customerhas 15-20 transactions per month on average, equivalent to 25-30 messages permonth, worth about 20,000-25,000 VND per month.
Can Van Luc,chief economist of BIDV, estimated banks had to pay several hundred of billionof Vietnamese dong of SMS fees each year for telecommunicationsoperators.
Specifically,the value is estimated at about 400 billion VND at BIDV, 200 billion VND atVietinBank, 300 billion VND at Agribank and 400 billion VND at VCB./.
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This is the fourth time since last year banks have proposed telecoms operators to cut charges for banking services via SMS. (Photo: cafef.vn) 
