HCM City (VNS/VNA) -The Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) hasannounced its results for the fourth quarter of last year and for the fullfinancial year, achieving impressive growth and meeting ambitious targets.
Its pre-tax profit surpassed thetarget approved at the annual general meeting early last year.
Its return on equity and returnon assets were 20.27 percent and 1.58 percent. HDBank’s non-performing loanratio was tightly controlled at 0.97 percent, the lowest level in the banking industry.
In the fourth quarter, the lenderachieved a consolidated pre-tax profit of over 1.12 trillion VND (48.3 millionUSD), up 122.1 percent year-on-year. This included net interest earning of 2.16trillion VND (93.1 million USD), up 23.9 percent over the same period.
With a breakthrough performancein the last quarter of 2018, pre-tax profit for the whole year was worth nearly4.01 trillion VND (172.6 million USD), the highest-ever and representing anincrease by 65.7 percent from 2017.
Besides, earnings from servicesand foreign exchange trading also grew sharply, helping increase the bank’sincome by 37.8 percent.
Services continued to be a brightspot, with the net profit from services doubling to 438 billion VND. Netearnings from foreign exchange trading also doubled to 298 billion VND.
Net interest earnings topped 7.65trillion VND, an increase of 20 percent from the previous year, thoughoutstanding loans increased by only 18.2 percent.
Total income grew by 25.7 percentto 9.44 trillion VND. Assets were worth 216.11 trillion VND, up 14.1 percentfrom 2017.
HDBank mobilised nearly 191.59trillion VND in deposits and increased its charter capital by 14 percent to 16.8trillion VND, making it ready to apply Basel Capital Accord II (Basel II)standards when they are adopted by the State Bank of Vietnam.
Last year, HDBank achieved itstarget of opening 45 branches and transaction offices, taking the total numbernationwide to 285.
The number of consumer financialtransaction points increased by more than 2,300 to 13,825, enabling the bank toretain its leading position in the consumer finance industry in terms ofnetwork size.
Their large networks enableHDBank and HD Saison to efficiently serve nearly seven million customers,especially in rural areas.
The bank’s stock – code HDB –which was listed last year, has become one of the 20 largest stocks in terms ofmarket captilisation on the HCM Stock Exchange and sees lots of buying byforeign investors.
The bank was awarded the LabourMedal, second class, on the occasion of its 28th anniversary.
Moody’s Investors Service hasupgraded the baseline credit assessments and counterparty risk assessments forHDBank to B1.
HDBank was one of the 37 largestcontributors to HCM City’s revenues, and was honoured for it by the municipal People’sCommittee.
The bank won many awards lastyear, including for the 40 Most Valuable Brands in Vietnam from Forbes, the“Best Companies to Work for in Asia” award from HR Asia, the “Retail BankingAward” from the Vietnam Banks Association and the International Data Group, andthe “Best Cash Management in the Asia-Pacific” award from Euromoney.
HDBank also attaches greatimportance to community programmes. It gave scholarships to 1,000 students,donated health insurance cards to thousands of near-poor people and fundedcataract surgeries for thousands of poor patients.
The bank is also a stakeholder inthe development of the country’s sports. Last year, for the eighth time itorganised the HDBank Cup International Chess Tournament, which resonated in theworld of chess. Last year was the largest event with 271 players taking part,including 125 from 21 countries and territories.
The second HDBank Futsal Prize(National Championship and Cup) held last year with attractive games andtop-quality competition contributed to the growth of Vietnam’s futsal in theinternational arena.
This year, HDBank hopes toincrease its assets to 328.59 trillion VND, mobilise more than 303 trillion VNDin deposits and generate pre-tax profits of 5.1 trillion VND, have totaloutstanding loans of 210.84 trillion VND if it falls within the credit growthlimit approved by the SBV, and increase the number of transaction points to308.-VNS/VNA
VNA