Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The banking sector will ensure adequate capital to keep the economygoing, according to an official from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), amid the novel coronavirus disease(COVID-19) which is taking heavy toll on the economy.
Commercialbanks in Vietnam have adopted measures to aid enterprises hurt by the epidemic,said Nguyen Quoc Hung, director of the SBV’s Credit Department.
An estimated44,000 affected firms and individuals, who had taken out total loans of 222trillion VND (9.6 bilion USD), have benefited from various credit initiatives,ranging from interest rate cuts and loan repayment delays to reduction offees, he added.
Some 32 out of45 member banks of the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) haveannounced fee waivers and reductions for online inter-bank transactions valuedless than 500,000 VND as part of efforts to promote cashless payment and reduce risk of transmission after the WorldHealth Organisation advised people to stop using cash if possible as the notes may help spread the virus.
The centralbank last weekend has urged banks to further cut fees for inter-banktransactions worth over 500,000 VND to 2 million VND from March 25 until the end of this year.
The SBVofficial said earlier this month, Vietnamese commerical banks pledged to offera credit package worth 285 trillion VND (12.3 billion USD) to support affectedbusinesses, offering 0.5 – 1 percent cut in interest rates.
There are moresimilar ones to come in the future, he added.
SBV DeputyGovernor Dao Minh Tu said to strengthen the commerical banks’ financialcapacity, the central bank will soon make a decision on cutting benchmarkinterest rates as well refinance rates, overnight rates and open-market rates.
It made thelast benchmark rate cut by 0.25 percentage points in September last year./.
VNA
