Bank Tet bonuses worth up to 10 months of salary

According to surveys taken by VnExpress before the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, leading state-run banks and private banks planned to give bonuses equivalent to 5-10 months’ salaries, while medium banks were going to offer bonuses of 1-5 months’ salaries.

Tet bonus is the biggest and most anticipated reward for workers.

A customer relationship officer at a Military Bank (MB) branch said this year’s Tet bonuses would be “better than expected”, with the average bonus equaling 5-7 months’ basic salary.

An employee at a mid-range bank in Hanoi said their employers’ average bonuses this year would be about 1-5 months’ salary, lower than in 2021.

“The bonus is 1-2 months’ salary lower than last year,” the employee said. This time, Tet will last from January 20-26.

Foreign banks are offering smaller Tet bonuses than local banks this year.

A credit officer at a branch of a South Korean bank said that if rated “A,” a customer relationship officer is rewarded with one month’s salary, the same as in the previous year.

If rated B, the bonus is reduced to 0.5-0.8 months’ salary, and if rated C, the officer has no bonus. These figures are equivalent to the previous year.

Smaller banks, especially ailing ones, are planning to give Tet bonuses of around VND1-2 million (nearly $42.4-84.7) on average. Some that are really struggling are not planning on handing out any Tet bonuses.

State-run banks made big profits last year, thanks to higher credit growth and non-interest incomes.

Vietcombank gained standalone profits of VND36.77 trillion, up nearly 40% against 2021, followed by BIDV.

VietinBank’s pre-tax standalone profits rose over 20% year-on-year to VND20.5 trillion.

Many leading private banks posted double digit profit growth.

However, employees at leading banks have predicted that lenders will continue to face challenges this year as businesses, the main borrowers at many top banks, may encounter high interest rates and difficulties relating to corporate bond issuance and payment, and the Covid pandemic’s impact.