Banks complain about SMS charges, network operator "keeps silent”

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Telecommunication charges with banks are high. Photo: ST

The fee is three times higher; the bank must cover the loss

According to VNBA, in order to support member banks to implement monetary and credit solutions in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the VNBA issued a written request on April 9, 2020, requesting the Ministry of Information and Communication to direct telecommunications businesses to reduce SMS charges for financial and banking services.

On May 14, 2020, VNBA continued to give opinions at the meeting between the Telecommunications Department, mobile telecommunications businesses and some commercial banks. Then, on June 17, 2020, VNBA issued a document on this issue.

However, up to now, the VNBA has not received a response from the Ministry of Information and Communications and the mobile telecommunications companies have not taken action to resolve the request of banks.

Previously, on April 20, the Telecommunications Department asked telecommunications businesses to review and report to the Telecommunications Department on the reduction of SMS fees for banks before April 27, 2020, but enterprises only report that no discounts have been made. The incident continues to be ignored.

According to the VNBA report, MobiFone and VinaPhone are currently applying VND820 / financial transaction text, VND500 / customer care advertising message. Similarly, Viettel is VND500 / message (irrespective of the type of message) and in 2019 has raised the rate to VND785 / message for financial transaction messages.

Particularly VietnamMobile and Beeline apply VND280-400 / financial transaction message, VND500 / advertising message of customer care. In case of using the subscriber number that provides the message service of an intermediary, banks are all subject to direct SMS fees from the operator or the carrier's partner, SMS Branding fee is about VND720 / message. Thus, the price of text messages that telecommunications businesses are applying to banks is about three times higher than regular messages (messages between individuals at VND250-300 / message).

With such a high price, only the monthly fee for a message to a telecom enterprise, a small bank is about VND7.5-9 billion; big banks arehundreds of billions of VND. Therefore, many banks are even compensating losses for financial transaction messaging services. As in BIDV, the data obtained by VNBA shows that the SMS output has increased over the years, like 2017 with just over365 million messages, 2018 is more than 473 million and 2019 is more than 365 million.

By the end of May this year, the number of messages was more than 320 million. Currently, BIDV is implementing the exemption and reduction of SMS service costs, so it is estimated that BIDV will have to cover a loss of about VND500 billion by 2020.

Therefore, VNBA proposed the Ministry of Information and Communications together with telecommunications businesses reduce the SMS fee by about 50% to support credit institutions, if not 50%, it can reduce the equivalent fee by VietnamMobile.

Still waiting for a decision from the Ministry of Information and Communications

Commenting on the above issue, Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, Chairman of the Board of Members of BASICO Law Firm, said that the bank is also an enterprise, must complain when it has negative effects on business and profitability, in fact, the bank itself has to cut business costs or reduce wages to reduce interest rates, reduce customer support fees for businesses and individuals affected by Covid-19.

Therefore, if the partners do not support the banking industry, there is also a part "injustice". According to Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, the agreements are made according to market principles by commitments and contracts, so whether the reduction of fees or not depends on the cooperation and benefit sharing between the two parties.

In fact, despite the "complaints" about the difficulties, in the 6-month financial statements of 2020 that some banks have announced, many banks still have steady growth in revenue from services, the number of significant profits up to trillions of VND. So, it is difficult for telecommunications businesses to sympathize with the proposal of banks to reduce fees.

Talking to Customs Newspaper about this issue, a representative of a telecommunications company who asked to remain anonymous, said a bank that buys a message service from a telecommunications company to take care of customers, the network operator also has to invest a lot. In terms of systems and infrastructure, it is necessary to have a separate tariff policy to ensure business operations. Moreover, banks hire services from telecom businesses then collect monthly messaging service charges from customers.

Currently, according to the SMS Banking fee of banks, depending on the level of the account package, individual customers may have to pay from VND7,000-12,000/month.If customers are organizations, the fee can be up several tens of thousands of VND per month. Therefore, the representative of the above carrier said that the fee for the message is according to the general regulations, so banks and telecommunications businesses can negotiate other support options to ensure their interests. Telecommunication enterprises have made proposals to the Ministry of Information and Communications, but are still waiting for a decision from the ministry.

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Previously, in discussions in the press, leaders of some carriers such as Viettel Telecom, VNPT and MobiFone said that the fee that customers must pay to the bank and the amount that the bank pays for messages to carriers as a basis to adjust accordingly. Therefore, experts say that the reduction of fees requires the consensus of many parties, based on the actual operating situation of enterprises, especially in the context of the pandemic; domestic enterprises try to take advantage of every opportunity to ensure growth in revenue and profit.