Hanoi (VNA) – The race to increasecharter capital in the banking sector continues to heat up with a series of banksannouncing their capital increase plans.

The Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB) has just been approvedby the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to raise its charter capital by 30 percentby issuing a maximum of 458.25 million shares. After the share issuance, MSB’scharter capital will increase by 4,725 billion VND from the current level of 15,275billion VND.

MSB said that the increase in capital helps the bank improve its financialcapacity, expand the scale of operation, and invest heavily in strategicprojects, especially digital transformation.

TheNational Citizen Bank (NCB) also announced that it had been allowed by the SBVto increase its charter capital to 5.6 trillion VND. Meanwhile, the Vietnam Export Import Bank (Eximbank)plans to issue 245.9 million shares to pay dividends at a rate of 20% fromundistributed profits. Eximbank's charter capital after the share issuance isexpected to increase by 2,459 billion VND to more than 14,814 billion VND.

In August 2022, the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB)announced the issuance of 755.6 million shares to pay the 2022 dividends at arate of 20%, increasing its charter capital by 7,556 billion VND to over 45,339billion VND.

The Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank) also intends toincrease its charter capital by a maximum of 22,377 billion VND to 67,434billion VND, becoming the bank with the largest charter capital in the system.

The Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) said it will submit to theState Bank of Vietnam a plan to raise its charter capital from 26,674 billion VNDto 36,459 billion VND in 2022.

The Ho Chi Minh City Housing Development Commercial JointStock Bank (HDBank) was approved to raise its charter capital by amaximum of 5,030 billion VND to 25,303 billion VND, through the issuance ofmore than 503 million shares to pay dividends in 2021 with a rate of 25%.

Also in the list of banks with capital increase are Nam ABank, Kienlongbank, Techcombank, OCB, ACB, SeAbBank and Viet Capital Bank.

Among the “Big 4”, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) plansto increase its charter capital by 10,623 billion VND to 61,208 billion VND;the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) bynearly 8,566 billion VND to 55,891 billion VND; and the Vietnam Joint Stock CommercialBank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) by 5,694 billion VND to 53,751 billionVND.

According to the banks’ announced plans, it is expected that 22 banks will increasetheir charter capital this year, with a total value of about 154 trillion VND(6.5 billion USD), the highest ever so far./.