Vietnam to Abolish License over Forex Remittance abroad

Vietnam to Abolish License over Forex Remittance abroad

Banking authorities in Vietnam will allow local individuals to transfer foreign currencies to other country without having to get a license from next year, an official from the country’s central bank said on June 14.

The State Bank of Vietnam, or SBV, will remove the license to make it easier for individuals who need to transfer foreign money to other countries for education or healthcare purposes, Phi Dang Minh, a SBV high-ranking official, told a conference on dollarization in Hanoi.

He said those who need to transfer foreign currencies overseas would only need to have all proper papers and come to a commercial bank to settle necessary procedures.

According to SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Dong Tien, the dollarization trend is coming back to Vietnam with the increasing ratio of deposits in foreign currencies at local banks.

The rate is now reaching an alarming level, he said, adding that it is higher than the 24 per cent recorded last year.

The central bank targets to reduce this rate to below 15 per cent and increase the national forex reserve to 18-20 times as much as the total import bill in a week by 2010.

Vietnam currently keeps the US dollar, euro and Japanese yen in its forex reserve, which has increased two-fold compared to the 1997 to the equivalent of 10-week import spending (around US$7 billion). The exact figure, however, was not made available.

Young People