Several commercial banks have started reducing deposit interest rates by 0.1 to 0.4 percentage points in response to the Prime Minister’s direction to lower rates to help achieve the Government’s 8% growth target in 2025.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has issued guidance for commercial banks to serve the registration of biometric data for foreign residents in Vietnam, when a new regulation on mandatory biometric verification for first-time mobile banking users or large valued transactions takes effect early next month, an SBV official said.

Maximum credit growth this year is forecast to be just 18-19 percent, meaning that the banking system will not use up the increased room of 21 percent.

Total lending of the banking sector for securities trading has reached 10 trillion VND (444.4 million USD), according to Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Le Minh Hung.

Total assets of Vietnam’s banking system reached more than 9.25 quadrillion VND (407.5 billion USD) by the end of August, an increase of 8.79 percent over the beginning of this year.