Banks must have at least 3 trillion VND (162.16 million USD) in charter capital by the end of this year and submit a plan to show how they are going to achieve this, no later than March 31, announced the State Bank of Vietnam on its website on Jan. 14.

In the plan, banks have to report the results of increasing their charter capital last year, a detailed plan for this year and suggest punishments if banks fail to implement the plan.

Municipal branches of the central bank will collate the bank’s reports to summarise them to send to the State Bank by April 15.

In 2008, the State Bank issued a decree regulating the charter capital of banks toward 2010.

While there are just a few banks trying to increase charter capital to 2 trillion VND early this year, some other joint stock banks have already raised capital to as high as 6-7.2 trillion VND (324.32-389.19 million USD). Many commercial banks are running with a charter capital of about 2.5-3.5 trillion VND at this time./.