Many bank branches do not give Tet bonuses

2023 is a challenging year for banks due to the impact of many factors, from the economy's weak capital absorption capacity, the impact of capital costs, increasing bad debt, to difficulties in the real estate market.

SurveyThis year, the Tet bonus level also has a large differentiation between banking groups and within each bank, when business performance is different.

In the state-owned group, the case of year-end bonus of 10 months salary still appears with branches that fulfill their targets well.

On the contrary, many private banks, especially the lower group, only give symbolic bonuses, and many branches even do not give Tet bonuses due to declining profits and increasing bad debts.

The calculation of salary and bonus is 80% of basic salary is divided during the year, the remaining 20% ​​is divided after closing the books. This fund is not distributed equally to all employees but will be divided according to the business performance of each branch and individual.

Industry insiders call this payment "performance-based salary", but because it is paid on the final settlement date close to Tet, people often call it a Tet bonus.

Thanh Tung, a credit officer at a mid-sized bank, said that credit growth is difficult, making it a big challenge to meet business targets. Tung's branch this year only achieved 90% of its target, with bonuses down an average of 20% compared to last year.

However, according to Tung, surveying friends in the banking industry, this number is still positive. "Except for the state-owned banking group, most private banks this year are having a harder time than every year, especially small-scale banks," Tung said, adding that many lower-ranking bank branches even do not give Tet bonuses when they do not meet their targets and bad debts increase.

Hai Yen, a credit officer at a private bank in the top 5 of the market, has been working at this bank for less than 8 months. Her Tet bonus has been significantly reduced compared to her old bank, because this year's disbursement performance was not very good.

At the bank Yen works for, the year-end bonus is not based on position or basic salary, but is calculated based on the quarterly business bonus. Although the percentage will be different for each employee, for Yen, the year-end bonus will be equal to 80% of the total bonus for all quarters of the year.

At a lower-tier private bank, profits fell nearly ten percent and did not meet the set plan. The bank representative said that salaries and bonuses remained the same as last year.

Bank employees receive an average of two months' salary, but top performers can get four months' bonus.

A representative of a leading private bank said that this year's bonus policy has changed in the context of poor business results of many units. Depending on the level of work completion, the bonus levels between the poor, fair, and excellent ranks are about half a month's salary apart.

This person said: "To recognize the efforts of the staff in a difficult year, the bonus for employees achieving the highest rank isratherwas raised compared to previous years, from 1.2-1.3 months' salary last year to 1.7-1.8 months' salary.excellentpeaked at about 3.5 months".

As in previous years, at the best performing units, employees of this bank could receive a dozen months’ salary for business performance. At some branches that performed poorly, the amount received was lower, and some units did not even receive a share of the surplus salary fund.

In addition, this bank has another bonus fund outside the salary fund, which is awaiting state audit and settlement, and will be allocated later. This bonus fund is usually divided into 1.5 months of actual salary for senior managers and 3 months for employees, if they meet business targets. "However, this year's profit is not extraordinary, the bonus fund is expected to decrease compared to before," said the Deputy General Director of this bank.