Finance, banking, insurance industry grows strongly

The finance, banking and insurance industry expanded 7.89 percent in the first nine months of this year, the highest level recorded in the past seven years.
Finance, banking, insurance industry grows strongly ảnh 1Insurance customers at Bao Viet Life Insurance Office in Nam Dinh city (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - The finance, banking and insurance industry expanded 7.89 percent inthe first nine months of this year, the highest level recorded in the pastseven years.

A report of the GeneralStatistics Office (GSO) revealed that the growth rate of the industry was 6.99 percentin 2011, 5.97 percent in 2012, 6.68 percent in 2013, 5.39 percent in 2014, 6.7 percentin 2015 and 7.38 percent in 2016.

As for insurance, the GSOreported that the insurance market maintained positive growth. Total premiumsfor the whole market in nine months were estimated to swell 18 percentyear-on-year, of which life insurance premiums increased more than 22 percent.

The GSO report also showedthat as of September 20, total money supply increased 9.59 percent comparedwith the end of 2016 and rose 11.76 percent year-on-year.

Capital mobilisation ofcredit institutions rose 10.08 percent while credit growth reached 11.02 percent.

According to GSO, goodcredit growth has shown a positive development trend and a relatively goodcapital absorption capacity of the economy.

Thanks to the good resultsof the first three quarters, most commercial banks have expected their businessperformance to accelerate in the last quarter of this year, helping the averagepre-tax profit of the entire banking system rise 13.63 percent in 2017,according to the latest survey on the business performance trend of creditinstitutions conducted by the State Bank of Vietnam.

As per the survey, 89 percentof credit institutions estimated their growth this year to be positive incomparison with last year.

A total of 70.65 percent ofcredit institutions continued to be optimistic about the trend of increasingdemand for financial and banking services in 2017, especially demand for loansin the fourth quarter of 2017.

Capital mobilisation andlending are expected to accelerate in the last quarter of the year, of whichcapital mobilisation will grow 5.32 percent, as against 3.74 percent in the fourth quarter of lastyear, and credit growth will rise 6.07 percent, as against 5.91 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.

As for interest rates in the fourth quarter, State-owned banks expected the rate to decline by 0.06-0.15 percentagepoints for both deposits and loans. Joint stock commercial banks expected ahigher reduction of 0.45 percentage points for loans and 0.57 percentage pointsfor deposits.

State-owned banks and jointstock commercial banks also expected the lending rate in the whole year toreduce by 0.09 and 0.03 percentage points, respectively, as against Decemberlast year. 

Economist Le Xuan Nghiatold Dau tu chung khoan (Securities Investment) newspaper said Vietnam’sbanking industry in 2017 has witnessed a spectacular recovery, following aperiod of significant efforts towards dealing with bad debt, especially therisk provision. 

The net interest on totalassets of the banking sector used to fall to 0.4 percent but has now reachedsome 0.8 percent, while some banks have touched more than 1 percent. The netinterest on equity fell to 5.6 percent during certain times but has now risento 8 percent, even more than the 10 percent at some banks.

Compared with the mostdifficult period, commercial banks’ profitability has nearly doubled. This isthe most important sign proving that commercial banks’ financial potential hasrecovered quite impressively, Nghia said.

Some banks have increasedtheir equity through domestic capital, and most of these banks have investedheavily in technology to develop new services, such as internet banking, mobilebanking and automatic payment, in this difficult scenario. The aforementionedachievements are remarkable, reflecting a new trend of the banking sector interms of risk management, management and service development towards Bank 3.0,he added.-VNA
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