The Branch officially went into operation in Can Tho on June 28, 2001 and was in charge of 140 credit institutions (CIs) in 10 provinces (Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, Hau Giang, An Giang, Kien Giang, Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh and Can Tho city). At present, it covers 159 CIs, consisting of 3 commercial banks and 156 people’s credit funds (PCFs) in 13 provinces (with the addition of Ben Tre, Tien Giang and Long An to the list of the covered provinces).

In recent years, besides its core operations such as examination, supervision and reimbursement,  the Branch has always considered public awareness a vital activity to strengthen and enhance depositors’ confidence in banking operations. In its first days, weak PCFs accounted for nearly 50% of the total PCFs in the areas that the Branch was in charge of, resulting in the incline in public confidence in the PCF system. Following the DIV’s directions, the Branch  urgently conducted DI policy communication. In the first 5 years, its public awareness activities closely followed the DIV’s directions. 8 public awareness events were organized in various areas in the region (An Giang, Can Tho, Dong Thap and Kien Giang in 2001;  Bac Lieu in 2003;  Soc Trang, Tra Vinh in 2004; Can Tho in 2006), conveying DI  policy, especially major policy changes  in accordance with the development of the economy and finance sector to relevant authorities. This marked a good start to the implementation of DI core operations in the region. The effectiveness of DI policy was affirmed by the Branch’s public awareness activity,  successful reimbursement at 3 insolvent PCFs (Giong Rieng, An Hoa, Giuc Tuong) and  payouts of 8.2 billion dongs made to 397 depositors at 6 PCFs in Kien Giang  prior to 2005, thus exerting a significant impact on local people, changing their mind-set and strengthening their confidence in banking operations.

Furthermore, the Branch has developed and publicized its pre- and post-reimbursement public awareness plans through local and national newspapers, thereby encouraging people to deposit their money at insured institutions, contributing to attracting idle capital from local residents and promoting the sustainable development of the local credit system.

Since the Law on DI took effect, the Branch has determined that public awareness plays a role of strengthening and improving the mechanism to bring DI policy into practice. Accordingly, the Branch has diversified its communication channels, specifically:

- 440 articles have been sent to online and printed newspapers, of which more than 65% have been published. The Branch’s  core operations such as on-site examination, special control, off-site supervision, communication of the Law on DI and insured deposits have been shown in these articles. This communication channel has been in regular use, delivering information in a timely manner to specific audiences who follow banking operations via newspapers and internet.

- Conducting a public awareness campaign in coordination with the Organizing Board of the Mekong -​Can Tho National Tourism Year (in 2008); encouraging local residents to participate in the  Contest “Get to know about DI”, which attracted more than 3,000 entries (in 2011); participating in the Exhibition of the 10-year construction and development of the Mekong River Delta (in 2012); disseminating DI policy at  the Women's Business Conference in coordination with Can Tho Federation of Labor  (in 2016); organizing a public awareness event at the Party cell’s meeting in coordination with the People's Committee of Xuan Khanh ward (in 2017); organizing the  Contest “Get to know about DI regulations and the DIV’s operations”, which received nearly 5,000 entries and a talk show with university students in coordination with the Executive Committee of the Youth Union of the Faculty of Economics of Can Tho University. The Branch delivered thousands of leaflets about the DIV’s operations (in 2005, 2006) and over 40,000 ones about the new coverage limit to various types of audiences, etc. It can be said that the Branch’s public awareness activities serve as a “bridge” between the DIV and the public and local authorities, thereby greatly contributing to disseminating information about DI policy and activities.

- Producing the TV report “Insured depositors” (in 2004) and TV reports on  changes in DI policy (in 2005 and 2007) in collaboration with local TV stations; a TV report on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the DIV’s establishment (in 2009); the reports “DI – rights and interests of depositors” (in 2017), “Legitimate rights and interests of depositors”, “DIV – Depositors’ confidence” (in 2017); “DIV protects legitimate rights and interests of depositors” on the  Life – Law corner of Vinh Long radio (in 2020), etc.

- Disseminating DI policy during the Branch’s on-site examinations at Nhi Truong, Vinh Kim, Long Duc, Cau Ke - Tra Vinh, Phuoc Long and Vinh My PCFs in Bac Lieu (in 2008). In addition to conducting examinations, the Branch’s staff provided advice and answered questions on DI objectives and policy and its function of protecting depositors so that the public in general and depositors and insured institutions in particular would clearly understand the benefits of DI policy made by the Party, the Government and the DI organization, thereby raising public confidence and building the Branch’s reputation.

- Organizing workshops: Communicating DI policy and organizing public awareness events in key areas such as Can Tho (in 2016, 2019, 2020), Tra Vinh (in 2017), Dong Thap (in 2018), Long An (in 2018), Ben Tre (in 2019), An Giang (in 2019). These workshops and events all attracted a large number of participants. A number of events not only provided new information on DI but also received comments and answered questions on DI policy, the coverage limit and how to deal with the amounts of deposits exceeding the coverage limit.

- Broadcasting TV reports provided by the DIV: choosing suitable time slots of local TV stations to get highest views. Policy dissemination  via TV in the Mekong Delta region achieved good results, reaching a wide range of people, especially those living in remote areas, who have a habit of watching local TV channels.

- Disseminating DI policy at PCFs’ general meetings: From the first quarter of 2018 to the end of the first quarter of 2021, the Branch sent its officers to attend PCFs’ general meetings and coordinated with PCFs in disseminating DI policy at over 30 meetings. In addition to disseminating information on DI, the Branch’s representatives explained the DIV’s  role as a companion of PCFs in  ensuring their safe and sound operations.

Over the past 20 years, the Branch has promoted public awareness of DI policy effectively, thus greatly contributing to protecting the rights and interests of depositors, ensuring the safety and soundness of the local banking system. In the coming time, with the aim of making full use of the existing results, the Branch will continue to implement DI policy in an effective way, enhance cooperation with related agencies to propose amendments and supplements to the Law on DI; closely follow the DIV’s communication orientations and directions; establish its professional and consistent image when implementing communication activities, so that communication will well support  its core operations, thereby enhancing the public understandings of DI policy and the DIV’s operations.

Hương Giang

Department of General Administration-DIV Regional Branch in Mekong River Delta

Research and International Cooperation Department