The Vietnam Banks Association has urged international card organisations to reduce several types of fees on Vietnamese banks in the context that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected their card businesses.

Illustrative image (Photo: thebank.vn)

The association said that the pandemic significantly affected the operations and business of banks in Vietnam, including card businesses, in recent months.

It cited statistics that the value of transactions by cards in the domestic market in the first three months of this year saw a drop of 21% while in foreign markets by 28% against the same period last year.

Value of repayment to cards in April tumbled by 78% against the same period last year and 93% against March.

At some companies and organisations which accepted card payments, including aviation, education, tourism sites and hotels, the value of transactions fell by 80% in March against the previous month and further declines were predicted in coming months.

Thus, the association urged international card organisations Visa and Mastercard to reduce the fees on Vietnamese banks for at least 12 months.

Specifically, the association proposed the transaction fees to be cut by at least 50% for both banks which issued cards and received payments.

For the long-term, it was critical to have appropriate policies for fee collection to promote the development of Vietnam’s card market.

The association said that Visa and Mastercard were collecting three to four types of fees for each transaction, adding that the fees international card organisation were collecting were much higher than those of card switching organisations.