Specifically, that customer said that the bank's employees “set up a scene” to threaten and force herself/himself to hand over the property (the collateral is a car) against the regulations. a
Meanwhile, the bank explained that the reason for recovering the property was that the customer had been late for payment in the 3rd payment installment (85 days)… Not to mention the right and wrong for the above behavior, what is mentioned is that this method of threat and coercion is denounced by citizens and businesses not only once. Before that, by the end of 2019, a customer of that same bank made a denunciation for similar action. It shows that the behavior towards handling and recovering debt of some credit institutions and financial companies is still inadequate.
The risk of bad debt increasing this year was predicted by many experts and economic organizations. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has just released an estimate: The amount of bad debt is about 2.27 million billion VND, equivalent to 25% of the total outstanding loans of the whole system which is assessed by the impact of pandemic, and has potential risks to banking operations. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many businesses embarrassment, many people have completely lost their salaries, and many people have reduced their income by more than half. That means it is very difficult for many customers to repay. As a result, the bank is also directly affected.
The bad debt increase of the whole industry affects bad debt’s control and handling of credit institutions. Therefore, it is easy to explain why banks have to strictly control loans. Reminding customers about debt is a normal task of all banks. The more the risk of bad debt increases, the more bank staff must urge and monitor closely. Thus, it is not possible for some debt collectors to lose their temper, text constantly, even “squeeze” debt in “gangster” because of the pressure of debt collection that causes frustration for customers and creates bad comments.
Banks need to pay attention to how to behave so that they can both ensure the progress of debt recovery and still show respect and care for customers. In the current context, not only the banking industry but also the whole country are joining hands to help citizens and businesses to overcome difficulties which are caused by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The efforts of the whole banking system in recent years have been recognized and appreciated by the Government when the SBV is one of the earliest units to help the economy overcome the pandemic. The banking industry soon proactively issued policies to allow credit institutions to restructure debt repayment terms because at this stage, the income of businesses and citizens was low.
In order not to go against the policy of the Governmgainstent and the SBV, each credit institution needs to show goodwill, accompany and share with citizens and businesses through specific actions. Financial companies and credit institutions need to extend the repayment period for debtors who are facing difficulties because of the pandemic. Debtors need to proactively notify credit institutions and financial companies of their income and financial situation in order to apply for a loan grace period. In case the bank is forced to handle the collateral to recover the debt, it must also follow the legal procedures. Absolutely do not act to recover debt in the style of “gangster”, threatening, forcing customers, etc. According to current regulations, banks and bank’s employees do not have the function of judgment enforcement. The coercive distraint of assets can only be performed by the judgment enforcement agency after a legally effective judgment.
According to Viet Phong, People's Online Newspaper on September 24, 2020.
