The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on March 31 issued a directive to reduce the fees for transactions via interbank electronic payment system by 50% for local banks.

Illustrative image (Photo: baodansinh.vn)

The reduction took effect from April 1 to the end of this year, aiming to support production and business to overcome difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and encourage cashless payments.

Under the Circular 04/2020/TT-NHNN, the central bank asked credit institutions and branches of foreign banks in Vietnam to review their payment services fees to cut the fees on customers.

The fee reduction for customers must be equal to or higher than the reduction rate offered by the central bank for local banks.

Local banks must report the reduction of payment fees to the central bank before April 15.

The National Payment Corporation of Vietnam recently slashed the switching fees for local banks twice, which made local banks cut fees on customers for fast fund interbank transfer of sums worth VND2 million or less.