Affordable bank credit has supported businesses in key sectors that drive the country’s economic growth, Nguyen Duc Lenh, deputy director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City office, told a conference on October 31.
Digital transactions at many commercial banks have reached a rate of 97-98%, with the banking sector maintaining annual double-digit increases in both transaction volume and value, said Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung at a recent workshop.
Banking experts are of the view that despite some relaxation for banks that failed to meet Basel II standards, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) should stay firm to the Basel II target.
Since the beginning of the year, the State Bank of Vietnam has been increasing the reference rate of the dong against the US dollar, and the Vietnamese currency has appreciated 0.43 percent as a result.
Success of foreign banks in Vietnam has been fueling the volume of capital poured into the sector, while these banks are changing their operations to grow.
Cyber security is a hot issue globally and in Vietnam, concerns on the subject have been expressed by the Government and departments, especially in the field of banking – finance, said Le Manh Hung, director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s Information Technology Department.
The State Bank of Vietnam set the reference exchange rate at 22,548 VND/USD on May 2, up 9 VND from the rate on the last day before the four-day holiday from April 28 to May 1.
Many banks have recently reduced deposit interest rates by 0.2-0.4 percentage points against earlier this year due to good capital mobilisation amidst the credit slowdown.
The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate at 22,487 VND/USD on the first day of the week (April 16), down 5 VND from the last day of previous week (April 13).
Commercial banks are expecting the revenue from fees and retail banking services to become their main income sources this year, as a result of rising market demands.
Together with high profits of trillions of VND at the end of 2017, domestic commercial banks reportedly hired thousands of employees to boost their performances and seize new opportunities.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) made a net cash injection of 13 trillion VND (572.9 million USD) into the economy in the past week to support the liquidity of commercial banks.
Commercial banks and financial companies are competing fiercely for a slice of the profitable personal-loan market as demand often rises sharply at the end of the Lunar New Year.
The banking sector’s profits were anticipated to rise significantly in 2017, driven by the handling of bad debts and the recovery of the property sector.
Sacombank has set aside 3 trillion VND (132.15 million USD) for preferential loans to household businesses, small traders and firms converted from household businesses in HCM City.
