Hanoi (VNA) - The Joint Stock CommercialBank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) has introduced a secondinterest rate cut to help companies and individuals hurt by the COVID-19pandemic.
It will slash interest payments by 10 percent fromApril 15 to September 30 for directly-hit companies and individuals, while thoseindirectly-affected will see their payments cut by 5 percent to June 30.
The bank estimates the policy willbenefit some 90,000 borrowers that have taken out a combined 300 trillion VND (12.77billion USD) in loans, or nearly half of its total outstanding loans.
Borrowers who received preferential interest ratesare not subject to the new policy.
As at the end of March, the bank had cut its lendingrates by 0.5-1.5 percent and maintained existing loan classifications foraffected customers in order to cushion the blow from the outbreak.
It has also cut fees on online transactions toencourage customers to adopt cashless payments.
Vietcombank reported 23.15 trillion VND (1 billionUSD) in total profit last year, a year-on year increase of 26 percent.
The COVID-19 pandemic is forecast to slash its profitthis year by over 2.24 trillion VND./.
Foreign currency market stabilised following central bank’s intervention
The US dollar on March 25 depreciated against the Vietnamese dong after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) sold the greenback on the cheap to stabilise the local foreign exchange market.