Domestic banks in Vietnam have quickly embarked on improving their remittance services to draw more money from overseas workers.

The Sai Gon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) has recently launched a new service “Express remittance to households” in addition to its current “Express outward remittance” service.

With the new service, recipients can receive the money at home rather than having to go to the bank.

The bank has also launched a one-hour express remittance service in Laos and Cambodia shortly after its branches were opened in the two neighbouring countries.

Customers of the East Asia commercial joint stock bank who live in provincial and city centres will receive the money within 12 hours and those living in remote areas within 24-36 hours.

Several financial experts and remittance companies say the outlook for Vietnam ’s remittance attraction is still quite optimistic despite projections that inflows will inevitably contract this year.

Vietnam is likely to attract around 6 billion USD in remittances this years, Tran Hoang Ngan, an economic expert and deputy principal of Ho Chi Minh University of Economics, said in an interview with the Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper.

Meanwhile, the remittance company of the East Asia bank has set a target of drawing 1.2 billion USD, which is roughly equivalent to the amount it handled last year.

According to some experts, overseas Vietnamese have started to regain confidence in the Vietnamese market and come back to invest more in their home country, which is largely attributable to signs of recovery in the two largest investment channels: the stock and real estate markets./.