The Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) has signed agreements with Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and Southern Bank to buy bad debts from the two lenders totaling some 1.3 trillion VND (62 million USD), according to the Saigon Times Daily.

Nguyen Huu Thuy, general director of VAMC, clinched a deal on October 11 with General Director Le Khanh Hien of SCB to buy bad debts from the lender worth about 1.1 trillion VND of book values. VAMC then clinched another agreement to buy around 206 billion VND of bad debts from Southern Bank in the afternoon on the same day.

“Selling bad debts to VAMC helps lower the non-performing loan ratio at SCB to less than 3 percent, enabling the bank to improve its financial capability,” said SCB deputy general director Vo Tan Hoang Van.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, vice chairman of VAMC, meanwhile told the daily that his company so far had issued special bonds worth 3.8 trillion VND to buy the bad debts with a total book value of roughly 4.9 trillion VND from banks.

Some 60 percent of the total bad debts transferred to VAMC are realty-related loans, with the balance involving other production and business activities. Bad debts of State-owned companies make up about one-third of the total debts that VAMC has purchased.

“VAMC will next week buy an extra 1 trillion VND to 1.5 trillion VND of bad debts from lenders,” Hung said. The SCB is one of the first banks approaching VAMC to sell bad debts, he remarked.-VNA