There are nearly 79 million bank accounts, 16,000 ATMs and 168,000 point-of-sale (POS) machines by the end of last November in Viet Nam. — Photo dantri.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The State Bank of Viet Nam will allow domestic commercial banks to start companies responsible for transporting cash to branches and transaction offices in order to reduce related expenses.

According to the State Bank of Viet Nam, there were nearly 79 million bank accounts, 16,000 ATMs and 168,000 point-of-sale (POS) machines by the end of last November in Viet Nam.

ATMs belonging to the largest commercial banks such as Military Bank, Techcombank and Vietcombank are located in crowded areas with plenty of workers and employees, such as office buildings, shopping centres and industrial parks.

According to a survey conducted last June, the largest commercial banks have set up 1,810 ATMs in Ha Noi and 2,409 in HCM City.

Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam Nguyen Van Binh said that commercial banks should share ATMs as they were wasting their money by opening ATMs next to each other.

He said that sharing ATMs would help the banks save maintenance expenses, and the State Bank of Viet Nam was reviewing regulations that allowed banks to transport cash to fill up their ATMs.

He added that the State Bank would ask one of the largest commercial banks to build a company specialised in disbursing and transporting money to its branches and transaction offices.

If the company worked efficiently, it would be allowed to sell its service to other banks, he said.

Nguyen Van Thang, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Viettinbank, said the bank had developed a centre to transport cash to its branches and transaction offices.

He said that the centre would open in 2015 and help the bank reduce expenses on personnel, salaries and vehicles, without creating problems for the banking system.

The centre would receive instructions from clients regarding time, place and amounts, and then assume responsibility for ensuring the cash was delivered, he said. — VNS