The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has extended the credit growth limits for the second time this year to some commercial banks, of which the highest level is up to 30 percent.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has extended the credit growth limits for the second time this year to some commercial banks, of which the highest level is up to 30 percent.
Banks are pushing the sale of life insurance products (bancassurance) in the context of low credit growth since the beginning of this year due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By March 17 noon, most of the commercial banks in Vietnam had lowered their interest rates on savings accounts with terms of less than 6 months after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) announced its policy rate cut a day earlier.
A number of commercial banks have lowered their interest rates on savings accounts by 0.1-0.4 percentage points in order to offer loans at a lower interest rate to businesses and individuals affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The banking sector has recorded many important hallmarks in 2019, especially the adjustment of a series of policies to help stabilise credit institutions.
Domestic banks forecast that the lending interest rates would drop in line with the government’s policy to support production and business activities of enterprises.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) said it will closely monitor interest rates offered by credit institutions and take measures to strictly handle violations of the law, including cutting credit growth targets.
Liquidity of the banking system has been plentiful again after the Lunar New Year (Tet), helping the central bank net withdraw more than 51.55 trillion VND (2.2 billion USD) in the past week.
In 2018, the VND only devalued about 2.2-2.3 percent compared to the USD and lower than the depreciation of EUR, pound and yuan at 4.5 percent, 5.7 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively.
The State Bank of Vietnam should consider developing a roadmap to remove regulations on credit growth limits and interest rate caps as it isn’t suitable due to the country’s achievements in stabilising the nation’s economy, according to experts.
Remittance to Ho Chi Minh City in the first quarter of 2018 increased by 4.5 percent against the same period last year to reach 1.12 billion USD, a central bank official said.
Ho Chi Minh City will subsidise interests on bank loans by up to 100 percent to support individuals and organisations who help transform its agricultural sector.
Commercial banks are optimistic about the foreign exchange market in 2018, noting the market would be stable with VND devaluing slightly by some 0.5-1 percentage points to 22,710 VND to 22,950 VND.
In contrast to Vietcombank’s move to cut deposit interest rate a week ago, two other large State-owned commercial banks -- Vietinbank and BIDV -- this week announced they were raising the rate.
The latest instructions from Le Minh Hung, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), require credit institutions and commercial banks in Vietnam to strictly comply with the SBV’s regulations on mobilising capital in foreign currencies and not offer interest rates exceeding the ceiling levels.
The National Financial Supervision Commision has assessed in its financial report for July that declines in the interest rate for the rest of 2017 will be supported by both domestic and international factors.
After two weeks of lowering lending interest rates for short-term VND loans following the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s cue, several commercial banks have reduced their deposit interest rates.
The central bank must push up banking restructuring and settlement of bad debt to ease pressure on rate hikes and keep interest rates stable this year, experts said.