Banks have cut service fees in response to the Government’s push to improve the business environment, deputy governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) Dao Minh Tu said on Thursday.

During an online conference on banking industry administrative reforms designed to improve the country’s business environment on Thursday, Tu said fees had been cut on services like money transfers, cards and lending.

Among the banks, BIDV has reduced or eliminated nine fees in the 2016-18 period, including the charges for money transfers and registration and annual fees for services from BIDV online, Bank Business, BIDV Bank Plus and BIDV Smartbanking.

Military Bank has reduced fees on 16 services related to lending, cards, money and remittance transfers while Techcombank has removed money transfer fees for individual and institutional customers.

According to Tu, the banking industry is making the moves to help improve the business environment following Government instructions.

Despite the improvements, Tu requested banks provide better support to enterprises and individuals in accessing loans. Businesses, especially small- and medium-sized ones, still find it difficult to secure bank loans.

Under the Government plan, SBV has made administrative reforms and cut business conditions to support commercial banks. It has simplified procedures for loans and cut interest rates and service fees.

SBV has so far cut or simplified 80 of the 260 business conditions under its management, helping it top 19 ministries and ministry-level agencies for administrative reform over the past three years.

Thanks to banking industry efforts, Viet Nam’s Access to Credit Index ranking has improved. According to World Bank’s “Doing Business 2018” report, Viet Nam ranked 29th out of 190 economies surveyed, earning 75 points on a scale of 100.

In terms of both score and ranking, Viet Nam’s Index was well above the average scores of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – East Asia-Pacific.

Compared to the 2017 report, Viet Nam’s 2018 index score rose by five points, making it the second-highest of the country’s 10 economic indicators. Together with five other high-ranking indices, the access to credit index helped lift Viet Nam’s business environment ranking by 14 places over the previous year to stand at 68th out of 190 countries. – VNS