After the State Bank of Vietnam launched a new campaign to clear away the foreign currency black market and committed to satisfying people’s legitimate demands for foreign currencies, commercial banks have begun to sell dollars to individuals. However, in order to purchase dollars, buyers are subjected to complicated procedures.

Dat Viet reports that though banks have opened doors more widely to individuals, they have not committed to “selling dollars at any time and anywhere”. People complain they have to “sweat profusely” to purchase dollars because banks always put up red tape. At the same time banks criticize people for the habit of keeping dollars instead of other foreign currencies.

It’s still difficult to purchase dollars from banks

In order to purchase dollars, people not only need to show necessary documents to show legitimate demand for dollars, but they will also encounter other troubles. Some people complain that banks sell dollars at the quoted prices, but charge additional fees, thus making the actual dollar price equal to the price on the black market. In other cases, people only can purchase limited amounts of dollars, which are much lower than their demanded amounts. Especially, many banks refuse to sell dollars to banks, saying that they only can sell dollars when the supply is profuse.

H, a loyal client of Eximbank, related that on March 22, she came to a bank branch to purchase dollars. She was told to show many kinds of documents, including air tickets, the documents showing the decision on sending H to a business trip, the expenses for the business trip, the destination and the budget for hotel rooms as well. After a morning of waiting, H could purchase 2000 dollars. However, the sum of money is just enough for H to pay for hotel rooms.

“Previously, when I needed dollars for my business trips, I just needed to go to the foreign exchange shops on Ha Trung Street, where I could by any sum of dollars that I wanted,” she said. “But now the black market has been cleared away. With this small sum of dollars purchased, how will I complete my business trip?”

Who to blame?

However, it seems that H is still luckier than many other people, who once came to purchase dollars at some other banks such as ACB, Vietcombank, Agribank, or BIDV.

T, an information technology officer of a corporation, related that he was given a trip abroad as an reward for his contribution to the company. However, most banks refused to sell dollars to him. Only ACB agreed to sell dollars, but it demanded too many kinds of documents. “After two days of coming to ACB, I could purchase only 500 dollars,” he complained.

What is happening? Banks do not have dollars to sell, or do they not want to sell? Nguyen Thanh Toai, Deputy General Director of ACB, said ”If we have dollars, we will still sell to clients. But we do not promise that we will always have dollars to satisfy the demand”.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Kim Xuyen, Deputy General Director of Dong A Bank, the bank which has committed to sell foreign currencies to clients, said: “We did not promise to sell dollars to clients, we just have promised to sell the currencies of the countries where people will go”.

Xuyen said that people now attach too much importance to the dollar, therefore, it is very difficult for banks to satisfy all the demands. Meanwhile, it would be better for people to purchase the currencies of the countries where they will go to. This will allow them not to have to pay money to convert currencies.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Hung, General Director of VP Bank, admitted that the dollar supply is not profuse enough for banks to satisfy all demands all the time. He said that it is because people do not want to sell foreign currencies to banks.

Agreeing with Hung, Phan Dao Vu, General Director of Bao Viet Bank, said though people have begun selling dollars to banks since the black market has shut down, the volume of dollars banks have purchased remains modest.

M. Dung – C. Anh