An additional eight commercial joint stock banks will join the government’s 30 trillion VND (1.4 billion USD) housing credit stimulus scheme, improving access to loans for low-cost apartments.

New low-cost loan providers include the Vietnam Export-Import Bank (Eximbank), the Bao Viet Commercial Bank, the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), the Vietnam Public Commercial Bank (Pvcombank), the Tien Phong Bank (TPBank), the Oriental Commercial Bank (OCB), the Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank), and the Southeast Asia Bank (SeABank).

The eight banks will join five commercial banks with half their capital owned by the State in the scheme, including the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), the Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank), the Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and the Mekong Housing Bank.

Launched in June 2013, the credit package offers loans with a maximum interest rate of 5 percent to individual borrowers for no longer than 15 years./.