Banks in race for charter capital increase

VietinBank surpasses BIDV to become the bank with the largest charter capital in the banking system. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has officially approved plans to increase charter capital of many State-owned and private banks.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 20 banks have raced to raise their charter capital in many forms. As of September 30, VietinBank was the leading bank in terms of charter capital, with over 48 trillion VND (over 2.11 billion USD).

Banks have been requested to ensure the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) in line with Basel II standards as prescribed in Circular No. 41/2016/TT-NHNN no later than January 1, 2023. So far, 16 out of 35 banks have met this requirement.

The capital increase helps banks strengthen financial capacity and increase medium and long-term capital to expand their business activities when the ratio of short-term capital for medium and long-term loans is tightened in accordance with the roadmap stated in SBV’s Circular No. 08/2020/TT-NHNN dated August 14, 2020. Therefore, banks’ race to increase capital is forecast to continue in 2022.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

After the first nine months of 2021, VietinBank surpassed BIDV to become the bank with the largest charter capital in the banking system. VietinBank has a bigger ambition to lift its charter capital to over 54.1 trillion VND by the end of the year.

VPBank ranked second when this bank completed the issuance of shares to increase its charter capital by over 19.75 trillion VND to 45 trillion VND.

However, the ranking of banks is likely to continue to change when recently Vietcombank's Board of Directors approved to increase charter capital in accordance with its approved plan. The bank is expected to add over 10.2 trillion VND to its charter capital, raising the total to more than 47.32 trillion VND. This is Vietcombank's first issuance of shares for dividend payout since 2011.

Previously, in mid-September 2021, the Prime Minister approved a plan to pump an additional 7.6 trillion VND into Vietcombank to maintain the State ownership ratio. If the capital increase is successful, Vietcombank will take the top position in the domestic banking system.

A number of banks with other big capital increase plans in 2021 include BIDV, ABBank, Sacombank, VIB, SCB, OCB, ACB and HDBank.

According to the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)’s report, the CAR of some Vietnamese State-owned banks remains low. Therefore, Vietnam needs to proceed with refinancing plans and accelerate the application of Basel II requirements, which have been delayed from 2020 to early 2023./.

VNA