Vietnamplus

Interest rates of home loans at commercial banks have tended to reduce significantly since the second half of July due to low capital demand from business and production.

Non-performing loans are still increasing despite slow credit expansion as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches many businesses to their limits.

Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has revised the country’s credit growth down to just 4 percent this year compared to 2019 - far from the initial 11 percent.

Despite a worldwide economy hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the banking sector has still enjoyed a good first half of the year and are on course to meet targets.

Vietnam is among the “brightest” spots in Asia despite the challenge of trying to contain the coronavirus pandemic and its economy is poised to rebound, said Edward Teather, a senior ASEAN economist from the Union Bank of Swizerland (UBS).

Fiscal and monetary tools and policies should be governed in a more proactive and flexible manner from now to year’s end in order to maintain macro-economic stability and boost growth, according to the National Advisory Council on Financial and Monetary Policies.

The State Bank of Vietnam could increase credit growth limits for credit institutions this year or even launch stronger monetary policies to aid the country’s post-pandemic growth, Governor Le Minh Hung has said.

Businesses and local people in HCM City have had relatively low demand for capital due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the city’s credit growth in the first half of 2020 falling to its lowest level for many years.

Experts have forecast bank credit growth in the second quarter to reach 3.5-4 percent, much higher than the rate in the first quarter.

The Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) plans to issue 4.7 million shares to current employees under its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), at a price of 10,000 VND (0.43 USD) per share.

The Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HOSE: HDB) plans to pay a dividend of 65 percent for 2019, 50 percent in stocks and 15 percent in bonus shares.

Credit grew only 1.96 percent as of May 29 as compared with late 2019, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Thi Hong.

Many commercial banks are proposing the central bank to extend credit growth limits as they have nearly reached the allowed threshold.

Financial firms extended loan dues for more than 223,000 borrowers whose outstanding loans stood at 151 trillion VND (6.49 billion USD) by May 25, according to the State Bank of Vietnam.

In its latest update released on June 3, the World Bank (WB) said Vietnam’s economy has gradually bounced back since social distancing measures were eased.

The recent interest rate cuts by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) have little impact on the Vietnamese stock market, analysts have said.

Bank Central Asia (BCA), Indonesia’s largest lender by market capitalisation, reported 6.58 trillion rupiah (444 million USD) in net income in the first quarter of this year, up 8.5 percent against the first quarter of 2019, when it reported net income of 6.06 trillion rupiah.

The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) planned to increase its chartered capital from its accumulated profits or paying dividend by stocks. The plan is being completed by the competent State agencies to complete the legal procedures for implementation.

With average price-to-earnings (P/E) and price-to-book (P/B) ratios at a five-year low, bank stocks are among the good options available for investors right now, analysts said.

Credit growth would likely reach only 9-10 percent this year against 13 percent last year even if the country’s infrastructure investment was good, experts forecast.