Employees of weak banks that have just been forced to transfer such as MBV, DongA Bank, GPBank, VCBNeo (new name of CB) have for many years gotten used to not receiving Lunar New Year bonuses like other banks, since being put under special control 10 years ago.

With the State Bank completing the mandatory transfer of these four banks before the Lunar New Year 2025, workers at these banks expect to have a different Tet than every year.

However, sharing with VietNamNet, an employee with more than 10 years of experience working at a "zero-dong" bank said: "Hopefully next year, if we make a profit and avoid accumulated losses, we will get a Tet bonus like colleagues at other banks. But this year, there is still no bonus. Although it is sad, we generally understand because the bank has just transferred to a new bank not long ago. We encourage each other to be lucky to have a job at this time."

At a bank under special control, SCB, on the last working day before Tet holiday, employees still wait for the "ting ting" sound of their 13th month salary.

Meanwhile, Big4 banking groups such as BIDV, Vietcombank, VietinBank and Agribank give Tet bonuses based on each branch and KPI completion level.

A long-time employee at BIDV said that the branch that completed excellently in 2024 will have the highest Tet bonus. Accordingly, each branch determines the bonus level according to coefficients 1, 2, 3. The highest bonus level is determined as 3 months of income.

“The bonus fund is allocated to each branch and distributed over 6-month and 12-month periods. In addition, each BIDV branch will receive an additional bonus of VND2 million and the headquarters will receive an additional bonus of VND5 million per person,” revealed a BIDV employee.

At Agribank, the Tet bonus is considered the lowest among the big 4 group when each employee receives 1 month of income. However, there will be other income under different names.

“In addition, at the end of the year, each employee receives additional “expenses” such as overtime pay, productivity bonuses, etc., so in reality, their income during Tet is quite good,” said an Agribank employee.

Vietcombank 2024 (107).jpg
Vietcombank employees can receive Lunar New Year bonuses of up to hundreds of millions of dong. Photo: Hoang Ha.

At Vietcombank, a department head said that bonuses of up to 6-8 months' salary are completely real, depending on the branch.

Previously, Vietcombank paid out third-quarter bonuses at the end of December 2024 and one month's salary for New Year's bonus.

According to an accountant who used to work at 3 banks in the Big 4 group, the Tet bonus depends on the ranking and classification of each branch. The first-class branch will have the highest bonus, in which excellent employees (class A) will of course also receive the highest bonus, even up to 7-8 months' salary.

However, if the branch is ranked 2 or 3 and the employees are only ranked B or C, the difference in Tet bonus compared to rank A will be very large. Even if the branch has high bad debt, the employees will only receive 1 month of basic salary, and in bad cases, they will only receive 75% of the basic salary.

“Big 4 banks give bonuses based on the business results of each branch, salary fund and distribution welfare fund. Where can ineffective or newly established branches get salary fund, bonus or large distribution to share? So often information about Tet bonuses of banks is released by people selling Big 4 entrance exam preparation courses.”

At private banks, TPBank rewards 6-8 months of salary based on KPI completion. The basic salary at this bank ranges from 15-30 million VND. In addition to the basic salary, TPBank employees also receive KPI bonuses and insurance sales commissions.

After drastically streamlining its apparatus, LPBank also announced a Tet bonus on the last working day of the old year, the bonus is 1.5 months' salary.

However, the above figure is only a “provisional amount”. After the Lunar New Year, LPBank employees will receive additional bonuses from the competition evaluation along with bonuses according to the criteria set by the bank.

At MB, bonuses for outstanding employees can be up to hundreds of millions of dong. With Tet bonuses depending on the year's ranking, MB employees this year generally receive higher bonuses than last year.

HDBank employees are also happy this Tet holiday when each person receives a bonus of up to 3 months' income.

Some banks calculate bonuses based on the STI principle (short-term incentive - short-term bonus based on business performance) so that employees do not even understand the specific calculation to determine the bonus level. However, according to an employee at VIB, one of the banks applying this calculation method, VIBer's Tet bonus is two months' salary, in addition to additional bonuses if employees perform excellently.

In general, the Tet bonus level still depends on the overall business results of the bank. For small banks with thin profits and lower average monthly income than the industry average, the Tet bonus is usually only 1-1.5 months of salary on average. Meanwhile, for large banks with "huge" profits, the bonus level will be larger, but it is also a worthy recognition for the whole year of dedication of the employees.