What administrative fines are imposed on finance companies for threatening and disturbing customers via mobile phones in Vietnam?

What administrative fines are imposed on finance companies for threatening and disturbing customers via mobile phones in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Clause 3.g Article 102 of the Decree 15/2020/NĐ-CP stipulating as follows:

Violations against regulations on retention, leasing, transmission, provision, access, collection, processing, exchange and utilization of information

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3. A fine ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed for the commission of one of the following violations:

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g) Providing, exchanging, transmitting or storing and using digital information in order to threaten, disturb, distort, slander or damage the prestige, honor and dignity of other organizations or individuals;

8. Additional penalties:

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b) The exhibits and instrumentalities used for committing any of the violations in Points b, g, h and q Clause 3, Point a Clause 4 and Clause 7 of this Article shall be confiscated.

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Pursuant to Clause 3 Article 4 of the Decree 15/2020/NĐ-CP stipulating as follows:

Fines and power to impose fines

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3. The fines prescribed in Chapter II to Chapter VII hereof are imposed for administrative violations committed by organizations, except the administrative violations mentioned in Article 106 hereof. The fine imposed on an individual shall be half the one imposed on an organization for committing the same violation.

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As regulations above, a fine ranging from VND 10,000,000 to VND 20,000,000 shall be imposed on finance companies for threatening and disturbing customers via mobile phones in Vietnam. In addition, the exhibits and instrumentalities used for committing any of the violation shall be confiscated.

What is the time for finance companies in Vietnam to remind customers for debt repayment?

Pursuant to Clause 2.dd Article 7 of the Circular 43/2016/TT-NHNN (amended by Clause 7 Article 1 of the Circular 18/2019/TT-NHNN) stipulating as follows:

Internal rules

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2. Internal rules on consumer lending shall be implemented in a consistent manner within the entire network of finance companies and address the following specific contents:

a) Loan eligibility criteria; rejected loan demands; lending methods; lending interest rate and method for calculating loan interest rate; customer’s lending application dossiers and other submissions to finance companies which are appropriate to loan features, types of loans and target customers; debt collection; conditions, processes and procedures for debt rescheduling; debt delinquency;

b) Procedures for processing, assessing, approving a loan application and deciding to extend a loan under which the maximum duration to process, assess a loan application and decide to extend a loan should be specified; delegation or assignment of rights and responsibilities for each individual or department in loan application processing, assessment, approval and grant of a loan decision and other workloads as part of the lending procedures;

c) Procedures for inspection and supervision of loan application, use and debt repayment of customers; delegation and assignment of rights and responsibilities of each individual and department for inspection and supervision of loan application, use and debt repayment of customers;

d) Requirement concerning security for loans, assessment of assets pledged as collateral for loans; management, supervision and monitoring of collateral appropriate to loan security, collateral features and customers;

dd) Actions to be taken to push customers into repaying and collect debts which are relevant to specific customers, conform to laws and exclude any threat to customers. The maximum rate of sending debt repayment reminders shall be 05 (five) a day; the method and time frame of reminding debt repayment which are agreed upon in consumer lending contracts, especially such time frame that must be between 7 (seven) and 21 (twenty one) o’clock; a ban on sending debt repayment reminders, debt repayment requests and information about debt collection to organizations or individuals that are not liable to pay debts to finance companies, unless otherwise required by competent regulatory authorities regulated by law; customer information confidentiality prescribed by law;

e) Loan termination and treatment; loan interest rate and fee exemption and reduction;

g) Rules and standards of conduct in consumer lending operations and measures to be applied to ensure strict compliance with these rules and standards;

h) In-charge department; forms of receiving, processing, and time limit for giving decisions on or responses to, complaints; duration of retention of feedbacks and complaints received from customers, organizations and individuals involved in a finance company’s consumer lending services;

i) Information technology system or database necessary for consumer lending operations; collection, update and verification of figures, management of customer's information, identification of false information and prevention of fraudulent acts for the purpose of granting a lending decision, controlling loans and recovering debts;

m) Specific regulations on measures to control direct disbursement of borrowed funds to customers, ensure that customers use borrowed funds for agreed-upon purposes specified in consumer lending contracts;

k) Identification of risks that may arise during the lending process; procedures for monitoring, assessing and controlling risks; risk treatment methods;

l) With respect to finance companies owning consumer credit counseling points, internal rules must contain requirements concerning procedures, authority and responsibility for establishing and closing their consumer credit counseling point; ethical standards, authority and obligations of staff working at their consumer credit counseling points; procedures for carrying out their business operations, inspection, prevention and control of fraudulent acts, prevention of risks arising from ethical behaviors of staff working at these points.

As regulations above, the time for finance companies in Vietnam to remind customers for debt repayment is from 7am to 9pm.

What are operations of finance companies in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 108 of the Law on Credit Institutions in 2010 stipulating operations of finance companies in Vietnam as follows:

+ Taking deposits of organizations;

+ Issuing deposit certificates, promissory notes, bills or bonds to raise capital from organizations;

+ Borrowing loans from domestic and overseas credit institutions and financial institutions under law; borrowing loans from the State Bank in the form of re-financing under the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam;

+ Providing loans, including amortized loans and consumer loans;

+ Providing bank guarantee;

+ Discounting and re-discounting negotiable instruments and other valuable papers;

+ Issuing credit cards, factoring, financial leasing and other forms of credit extension after obtaining the State Bank's approval.

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