Bank employees race to find customers to deposit money

Hang, 23 years old, just graduated and is trying out a job at a state-owned bank. The Hai Phong girl was assigned a target of mobilizing savings deposits of 3 billion VND per month, including at the counter and online. During the first week of probation, she searched for relatives and friends from middle school to college to make offers. The next week, she changed her strategy to “undercover” in Facebook groups and immediately texted and called when she saw any guests leave their phone numbers, but all she received in return were shakes of the head.

“Mobilizing savings deposits at this stage is difficult,” Hang said.

She encountered difficulties not only because of lack of relationships but also because interest rates at state-owned banks were only around 8%, while private banks were up to 9%. Talking with customers, she continuously emphasized the safety and reputation of the bank, in order to overcome weak interest rates. She promised to put 500,000 VND to 1 million VND out of her pocket to make up for the difference.

However, the results were no better. By the middle of this month, Hang had just opened two books totaling about 500 million VND, from a customer renewing at the counter and from a family member.

Not only newcomers, mobilization quotas are also eroding the strength of senior employees. Khanh Van, a customer specialist at a bank subject to mandatory transfer, was assigned a KPI of 6 billion VND per month. She just received this target in the past few months, since the bank stepped up mobilization, but has never completed it.

Van said she previously worked in the lending industry for more than 2 years, so she didn’t take time to get up to speed with the new targets. However, she was surprised by the fierce competition between banks and transaction offices within the same unit.

A post in Facebook groups has hundreds of “banker” comments in just a few hours. All offer interest rates of 9-9.5% per year, with a commitment to outside expenses, gifts in kind or travel vouchers. Some also use AI to design posters and spend money running ads on many platforms.

The pressure of quotas and competition forced Van to work continuously, from 7am until late at night. The concept of taking a weekend off no longer exists, because whenever a customer asks, they immediately answer. According to her, the mobilized amount is converted into performance points, which directly determine monthly income and year-end bonuses.

Similarly, the figure of 20 billion VND per month makes Minh Thu, a sales specialist at a bank based in Hanoi, lose sleep. Deposits over 500 million VND are considered as valuable as gold, because recently people tend to divide the money into smaller amounts, choose short terms and distribute them in many places to optimize interest rates.

“Saving interest rates are continuously increasing but ‘closing a deal’ is not easy, because idle money and the level of competition are inversely proportional to each other,” she said.

Besides racing to find new customers, Thu also has the task of retaining old customers against the risk of being lured by competitors and closing their savings books. In recent months, she has encountered many cases where she was promised a higher interest rate and wanted to settle the balance mid-term. If this happens, the employee’s performance will decline, leading to a decrease in income. Therefore, every few weeks, she calls to inquire or send more gifts and cakes to take care of customers.

The pressure of quotas and competition that Hang, Van and Thu face is not an isolated story. According to Mr. Nguyen Hung, General Director of Tien Phong Bank (TPBank), competition in the residential deposit channel is high due to the increasing capital demand of the economy, especially when banks promote credit to meet the needs of production, business, consumption and key infrastructure projects.

Sharing the same opinion, a representative of Orient Bank (OCB) said that banks not only compete with interest rates, but increasingly focus on service quality, convenience, care policies and increasing value for depositors.

Competitive pressure is amplified in the context that traditional mobilization channel growth tends to slow down. Total customer deposits in the entire system by the end of the second quarter reached 15.7 million billion VND, an increase of 5% compared to the end of last year. Many large banks such as BIDV, Vietcombank, VietinBank, Agribank, LPBank, Sacombank… have deposit growth rates equal to or lower than the industry average. Some banks such as ACB, Eximbank or BacABank even went backwards.

To attract money, increasing deposit interest rates is the solution many banks choose. Compared to the beginning of the year, the average interest rate on 6-12 month term deposits has increased by 1.5 percentage points, to 7.8% per year.

Some private banks such as MBV, Vikki… actually apply interest rates of 8.5-9.2% for short terms. The negotiable interest rate is even higher, depending on many factors such as deposit amount, term and negotiation between the depositor and the bank staff. Particularly at National People’s Bank (NCB), staff introduced savings products with an actual interest rate of nearly 10.3%, including 9.3% according to the public table and bonus points converted to cash if customers do not use them.

Besides, some banks are looking for another direction. At ACB – the bank recorded a decrease in customer deposits in the first 6 months of the year, the issuance of valuable papers became the main source of compensation when growing by 50%. Bank leaders say this strategy helps them reduce dependence on traditional residential deposits, shifting to mobilization from businesses and non-bank financial institutions with long terms and more reasonable costs.

According to the General Director of TPBank, this bank prioritizes the quality and stability of capital sources instead of racing interest rates. They focus on developing demand deposits (CASA) by encouraging customers to use payment accounts and utility services.

“In the context of fluctuating interest rates, we do not aim to increase term deposit mobilization at any cost,” Mr. Hung said.

Similarly, OCB leaders affirmed that they do not put pressure on employees to increase mobilization through inappropriate measures, but focus on product quality and long-term relationships. The bank also does not advocate for employees to make outside payments or commit to customers with interest rates or benefits that are not within the approved policy.