On June 29, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued two official letters relating to the debt collection case of VPBank One Member Financial Limited Company (FE Credit) to customers, which caused an urgent public opinion.
SBV had required Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) and FE Credit to urgently review all internal regulations on credit provision, urge debt recovery, and agreements with debt collection and debt partners to ensure full compliance with the Circular 43/2016 (amended and supplemented) and other relevant regulations.
These organisations must revamp all credit operations of FE Credit, including review, credit, monitoring, urging, debt recovery, the agreement between FE Credit and debt collection partners to ensure compliance with the provisions of law. In case of detecting violations, the related organisations and individuals must be strictly handled according to FE Credit’s internal laws and regulations.
HD Saison Finance Co., Ltd, Shinhan Vietnam Finance Co., Ltd Also had to review all internal regulations and the implementation of the company’s internal regulations on credit provision, urge debt recovery, agreements with partners on debt collection and debt sale to ensure full compliance with the provisions of Circular 43/2016 (amended and supplemented) and relevant provisions of law. In the case of detecting violations, there would be actions to strictly handle responsibilities of related individuals and organisations according to the law and internal regulations of the company.
VPBank and these above financial companies had to report the results of the implementation to SBV (through Banking Inspection and Supervision Agency) and SBV of Hochiminh City branch no later than July 15.
Earlier, deputy prime minister Truong Hoa Binh asked for clarification on a client of a financial company who committed suicide after being threatened with debt collection. This customer had bad debt at three financial companies, including FE Credit, HD Saison Finance Co., Ltd, and Shinhan Vietnam Finance Co., Ltd
FE Credit had issued a statement stating that Le Thanh Tam had two overdue debts with a total balance of 51 million dong at FE Credit (the number of delayed days of the two contracts was 257 days and 347 days respectively). Besides, according to the result of the customer credit information search at Vietnam National Credit Information centre (CIC), this customer also had bad debt at three other financial companies with a total outstanding debt of more than 83 million dong.
According to FE Credit’s regulations, bad debts (over 180 days) would be transferred to partners to recover the debt as agreed with customers in the Credit Contract, under the provisions of the ‘Consumers Protection Law.’ FE Credit confirmed that its employees had not come to Tam’s house to recover debts. The company said it was awaiting official investigation results from authorities and would respond as soon as information arrives.
