In a bit of  “what the phở?” news for your Tuesday morning, Vietcombank has announced that it "has terminated ATM and money transfer services for foreigners, regardless of whether they are resident in Vietnam or not."

According to the Vietnam Economic Times:

“ATM transactions between Vietcombank accounts in which the recipients are foreigners will no longer be processed. It will also not accept any transaction from other banks in which the recipient is a foreigner with a Vietcombank account.

The bank explained that ATM transactions do not allow the bank to check the information of the account owner, so it decided to terminate the service in order to obey the regulations of the State Bank of Vietnam on ATM services for foreigners.”

Vietcombank said that the decision was made in order to follow regulations of the State Bank of Vietnam on ATM services for foreigners. As it stands, “ATM transactions do not allow the bank to check the information of the account owner,” wrote the economic journal.

Saigoneer placed numerous calls to the bank but its customer service department said it hadn’t received any information about changes to foreigners’ accounts.

While the new policy - if it every comes to fruition – would undoubtedly impact many Vietcombank customers, it stands to reason that it could be adopted by other local banks as well.

We’ll keep you updated as this story develops.

[Photo via Ngan Hang]