| Foreign remittances to fall in 2009 | |
Financial analysts have predicted that overseas remittances to Vietnam will drop to 6 billion USD this year from last year’s 8 billion USD due to the global financial crisis, which resulted in overseas Vietnamese and guest workers abroad suffering wage cuts. The National Financial Supervision Committee’s Chairman, Le Duc Thuy, and Deputy Rector of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics Tran Hoang Ngan, both told reporters recently that the reduction was “unavoidable”.
The situation has forced banks to reset their targets at more modest levels. However the Dong A Foreign Remittances Company under the Dong A Bank will transfer 1.2 billion USD in remittances, equivalent to last year’s figure.
To retain its market share, major players in this field such as Vietinbank, Vietcombank and Dong A bank will have to keep improving their services.
The Vietinbank has worked with the Mellon Bank from New York , a leading US bank, to launch an online monetary transfer service, becoming the leader of this kind of service in Vietnam.
The service was first launched in the US and is expected to expand to Canada , Australia , Germany , the United Kingdom and other potential marketsThe Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (VCB) has plans to establish a company to transfer remittances between the US and Vietnam, after beginning a number of promotional campaigns and holding training courses on using monetary services for the family members of guest workers.
Sacombank has launched an express transfer service that takes just one hour to transfer money from Laos and Cambodia to Vietnam , after opening its own branches in the two neighbouring countries. The bank has also utilised its nationwide network of hundreds of transaction points to offer a home delivery service. | |
| VNS |
