Banking - depositing US dollars in VN bank

From my experience talking with some different banks, as long as you can TT the money in then there is no problem. You need a bank in another country with information on Bank, account no., swift code, address to make a telegraphic transfer. They just need a paper trail and this also will protect you when you want to transfer the same amount out next time.

I want the money here in case I want to use it (this is my home).  Also, I get decent interest at VN banks and Cambodian banks pay virtually none.  Swift transfer costs around 3%, so I had been saving that money by just hand-carrying the money over.  For 2 years, it was not a problem to deposit, but now it appears to be. 

Again, any ideas on depositing USD into a VN bank account?  Next time, I'll just have to live with the transfer fee.

There should not be a problem depositing USD in Vietnam Banks. Just ask them you need an USD account open. Then you should be able to do it. Btw, I am just relating information from Vietnam Bank as I personally have not open one.

If its not too much (say over 50kUSD), then you could pay a 1 or 2% "fee" depending on your relationship and no questions asked. I've done it recently. But it really depends on who you have to negotiate for you.

If its over 50kusd, then they are supposed to register it with the state bank. That is what I heard.

The only way they will let you deposit USD is if it comes from outside the country, or you have paperwork for where it came from inside the country. It looks like your easiest bet is going to be to transfer it to Vietnam from another country. You might want to check on different banks in Cambodia and Vietnam for their transfer rates. I get USD transferred through Citigroup for free, but I don't think they have a bank in Cambodia.

No Citi in Cambo.  In fact, none of the Cambo banks are connected to any banks outside of the country.  Even if you have an ANZ account here and in Cambo, you cannot transfer money between the two.  Crazy.

As for my current situation, I already have the US cash here in Saigon.  Too late to try and transfer it.  And new laws in effect this new year do not allow foreigners to deposit any money from overseas, at least as I have been told by TCB, and ACB.  The only way for expats to deposit foreign currency (or VND for that matter) into a VN bank under the new law is to show a work permit, labor contract and a VN-based pay slip showing the origin of the money.  Obviously, direct deposit from a VN company bypasses all of this.

Before Tet, I could have walked into the bank and deposited the cash without question, as I have done for years.  As I am being told, all of those rules have changed due to anti-money laundering regulations.

I have transferred USD direct from the US to VN this year (but not since Tet) and had no problems. One nice thing about Cambodia not participating in international banking is that I think some of them don't report your account to the US government.

You can transfer money from your account on the Vietnam Fine. but as long as your account is registered in Vietnam usa.

I work in a bank here, my experience is: if you want to transfer money to vietnam, u need passport, residence card to open a usd account in a bank. Then they will give u swift code to transfer money to the bank, of course, we must check your money source before credit to your account but not too hard, but if u exchange dollars to vnd or withdraw your dollar, it's very hard to send it back to somewhere outside of vietnam or deposit dollar to your account again.

If you own a business in Cambodia, then you absolutely have at least an account with a bank in Cambodia. Consequently, you just have to use telegraphic transfer to send your money to Vietnam, specifically into an account with a local bank. It's obvious that there is no proof that your money is clean if it was brought into Vietnam by yourself.
Hope my expanation is helpful to you :-)

Yes, quite simply, convert to VN $, open a savings acc't and make your deposit - no problem and then later when you withdraw, simply convert back to $USD as you need to. This is not a complicated issue.

If your money is in US dollars in a Cambodian bank account just open a US dollar account in Vietnam and transfer it. It's that easy. I regularly transfer US dollars from the UK to my US dollar account in vietnam. If you only have cash you won't be able to deposit it in a bank in Vietnam.

try Xylo international money transfer, its a subsid of Westpac Bank Corp I have been using it for 7 years.

The other option is UMT universal money transfer.

Note that these are options that actual work for me.

There are a lot of things that need to be considered here your ability to be transparent, your personal status in international business.