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People's Credit Funds (PCFs) are known as the address providing capital and banking services to subjects with weak financial capacity (low-income people, households, small businesses...) and little access to capital from commercial banks in rural areas. This is also a group of the public that has little access to information and knowledge about the financial - banking - deposit insurance sector, thus vulnerable to negative information and developments. Therefore, for the communication programs implemented, the DIV aims at conveying messages to raise awareness and build depositors' confidence in PCFs in particular and the system of credit institutions in general, thereby increasing the operational efficiency of the deposit insurer, stabilizing the financial-banking system.
Communicating to the public, especially depositors in rural areas
In order to carry out the task of "disseminating policies and laws on deposit insurance" specified in Clause 14, Article 13 of the Law on Deposit Insurance (2012), the DIV has implemented many extensive communication activities with a broad spectrum in order to bring policy to a wide range of different subjects. However, all of these programs are designed with a proportion of content aimed at depositors at PCFs with an appropriate format.
First of all, the DIV website - the information channel that represents the official voice of the deposit insurer, conveys policy contents to the public with an average of more than 1 million visits per year. In addition to contributing a voice to convey the guidelines and policies of the SBV as well as the banking industry, the DIV’s website also has a separate section called “What depositors should know”. This is a column for posting information directly related to the rights and interests of depositors, constantly updated on new topics of interest to depositors. Many news and articles in this column have directly met the information needs of depositors at PCFs, and at the same time promoted deposit insurance policies in a soft and accessible manner.
The quarterly deposit insurance bulletin is also an important communication channel, updating information on policies and activities of the DIV as well as lessons learned from the practices of deposit insurance in the world. The bulletin is sent to all deposit insurance participating institutions, including 1,180 PCFs, thereby providing information to leaders and transaction officers at these credit institutions to ensure they have knowledge and understanding about deposit insurance to explain to depositors at the most basic level when necessary.
In addition, in 2019, DIV completed the compilation and publication of the deposit insurance handbook for depositors. This is an important document that covers the basics of deposit insurance policy from a depositor's perspective. The handbook was used to distribute to depositors participating in communication events organized and jointly organized by the DIV. At the same time, with the compilation of specific, direct content according to each question, each issue, and easy to understand, grounded and logical explanations, the handbook is the basis for the communication and explanation of the deposit insurance policy, especially for depositors in rural areas.
To ensure the coverage of deposit insurance policy information nationwide, the DIV has cooperated with newspapers and newspapers with a large readership, especially those aimed at employees and those works in the agriculture field. Articles are published simultaneously on the electronic and the printed papers in order to reach a diverse audience. The content of the articles revolves around the core contents of the deposit insurance policy, the activities of the DIV, and questions and answers about the policy. In order to influence depositors in rural areas, depositors at PCFs, DIV has proactively designed specific content suitable to meet the information needs of this audience, especially with regard to issues directly related to the interests of depositors such as: deposit insurance coverage limit, how depositors are protected, thereby building and fostering public confidence in safety, sustainability of the banking system.
For broadcasting and television products, the DIV has also developed a variety of reportage content, documentaries, and skits to disseminate the deposit insurance policy to broadcast at communication events as well as on central and local radio and television channels. In particular, many contents are designed with the aim of targeting depositors in rural areas and depositors at PCFs such as a set of 3 skits produced in 2016 with the theme: "Depositors do not have to pay for deposit insurance”, “Need to calm down before rumors” and “Greed for profit, harm yourself” that have been widely used throughout the years in many media channels. Thereby, the deposit insurer has received many comments from depositors showing that the use of skits and clips to convey policy content will help these contents become close, soft and receptive to the public and attracted a lot of attention.
Depositors at People's Credit Funds – an important type of audience
Since 2016, the DIV has issued a Guide to implement communication work at the PCFs. This is the basis for the whole system of DIV to organize communication to staff at PCFs as well as directly to depositors.
In 2016-2017, the DIV regional branches focused on organizing communication events for the leadership and transaction staff of the PCFs. This is a special public audience of the deposit insurance policy, because they are both representatives of the insured institutions, and also those who carry out banking operations, have direct contact with depositors and identified by the DIV as an intermediary through which they can spread the policy, each PCF officer is a policy communicator of the deposit insurance policy.
Since 2018, the DIV regional branches have integrated communication in the PCFs’ congress events, regular activities and thematic activities of local socio-political mass organizations such as the Farmers' Union, People's Committee, Women's Union, Fatherland Front..., thereby meeting the needs of direct communication to depositors in rural areas, depositors at PCFs, and at the same time saving costs and human resources for the organization. In the year 2019-2020 alone, the DIV attended and disseminated the policy at the Annual Members' General Meeting of nearly 100 PCFs, organized nearly 20 communication events to leaders and key officials of hundreds of PCFs across the country, organizing nearly 20 periodical events of local socio-political organizations.
In 2019-2020, combined with special examination activities for a number of PCFs conducted under the direction of the Governor of the SBV, the DIV has coordinated examination and communication in direct contact with depositors, thereby explaining the purpose of the examination as well as the basic contents of the deposit insurance policy. Therefore, depositors do not wonder or is bewildered, and at the same time are ready to support the examination work of DIV.
In addition, in 2017, the DIV piloted the dissemination of the deposit insurance policy on the Postal system and from 2018 continued to expand the area. Exploiting communication through VNPOST's system is an effective and cost-effective form with a wide reach. Through that, information about deposit insurance policy is brought to remote areas, complicated areas with a nationwide network of post offices, and at the same time reaching as far as the commune level, with a large number of customers and frequent large transactions. Communal cultural and post offices not only provide postal and telecommunications services, but also carry out a number of activities of sending and receiving money, providing consumer goods, and at the same time serving as places for reading books, newspapers, and daily culture of local residents. On average, the number of customers who come to do daily transactions at the Post Offices - Communal Culture is about 40 - 70 people per day, the number of people in and out at district or town post offices is 300 people per day on average, ath big towns it is 400 - 500 people per day, in which customers are mainly the elderly, women, depositors in rural areas who are the target audience of DIV.
The DIV has placed standees and posters with the core contents of the deposit insurance policy, directly related to the interests of depositors at post offices. Since 2020, through a survey of public feedback and to save costs, the DIV has uniformly posted posters at all postal transaction points in the deployment area. Up to now, the DIV has communicated through a network of post offices in 36 provinces, with a total of more than 400 district and town post offices and nearly 5,000 commune cultural post offices, reaching out to a large number of depositors. in rural, mountainous, remote areas, etc.
Continue to improve the effectiveness of communication
The information and communication work of the DIV has been implemented with a clear orientation, synchronously and uniformly throughout the system. However, in order to improve the effectiveness of deposit insurance policy communication, especially to depositors at PCFs, there are a number of difficulties, limitations and solutions that can be listed as follows:
- Firstly, the Law on Deposit Insurance only stipulates that the DIV is responsible for disseminating the deposit insurance policy, but it does not stipulate that the insured institutions are responsible for coordinating the DIV in communication. At present, insured institutions participate in communication of deposit insurance policies mainly on a voluntary basis, without legal binding, while these are also beneficiaries of the policy and at the same time also is the direct focal point for transactions, contacts with depositors, has advantages in disseminating deposit insurance policy. Therefore, in the process of proposing amendments and supplements to the Law on Deposit Insurance, the content should be in the following direction: specifying the responsibility of insured institutions to coordinate with DIV in disseminating deposit insurance policy. Accordingly, the insured institutions in addition to displaying the Certificate of participation in the deposit insurance also need to be responsible for coordinating the communication with the deposit insurer.
- Secondly, at present, the presence of deposit insurance policy in banking activities related to deposits is still low, thus not reaching the level of access to depositors. In order to ensure synchronization, the banking sector regulator should have a policy to direct the insured institutions to print and display the DIV logo and information about the deposit insurance coverage limit on savings cards, user interfaces, and deposit-related interfaces to enable depositors to access deposit insurance policies and to build market discipline.
- Thirdly, the results of a study conducted by DIV in 2020 show that depositors not only need information about deposit insurance policies but also want to know about banking activities, information and developments in the banking system as well as deposit insurance activities. Deposit insurance policy is an integral part of monetary policy and banking operations, and conversely, developments in banking activities can also affect depositors, leading to an impact on deposit insurance organization and deposit insurance policy. Depositors at PCFs are vulnerable subjects due to lack of information and knowledge about finance - banking - deposit insurance. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the scope of the DIV communication not only to distinguish the deposit insurance policies, but also to provide information on banking operations, guidelines and policies in general, and activities of the DIV, especially the contents related to the depositor.
- Fourthly, at present, the period of special control for problematic PCFs is too long, leading to difficulties in implementing communication in these localities and even in neighboring areas. For areas where the PCF is weak but has not been resolved thoroughly, communication is very sensitive. Even a small mistake in communication can cause depositors to react negatively, backfire, and even cause local instability. When implementing broad-spectrum communication programs, the DIV must exclude these areas, because communication in these areas requires specific and separate communication plans. In the process of contact and communication at PCFs, the DIV also received many opinions wishing that the problematic funds would be resolved smoothly, avoiding affecting the capital mobilization activities of the neighboring PCFs as well as threatening the local PCF system.
- Fifthly, through the practical implementation of communication activities, we realize that the coordination and facilitation of the SBV branches in provinces, cities and local authorities is extremely necessary. Especially, in rural areas, in the areas of operation of PCFs, the voice of government agencies is very important, having the effect of reassuring people when credit institutions have problems. Therefore, it is proposed that the DIV continue to build and strengthen working relationships, have a close coordination mechanism with the above agencies to create a basis for effective communication.
- Sixthly, current regulations only state the rights and obligations of the deposit insurer, which is to disseminate policies and laws on deposit insurance. Meanwhile, the policy communication process shows that, in addition to the legal and policy contents, it is necessary to promote the image of the deposit insurer, thereby building public confidence in the deposit insurance policy in particular and the banking system in general. It can be said that the image of the deposit insurer is an integral part of the deposit insurance policy, especially in times of crisis, the deposit insurer needs to speak out strongly to reassure public security.
