The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) has been allowed to increase its charter capital to 15.172 trillion VND (799.789 million USD) from 11.252 trillion VND in the first phase of 2010, following approval from State Bank of Vietnam (SVB).

According to the approval issued on May 19, Vietinbank is permitted to an additional 769 billion VND to its charter capital through allocating bonus shares for existing shareholders.

At the same time, the Hanoi-based bank will issueadditional shares worth 3.151 trillion VND in accordance with the resolution passed by its shareholders at the April 4 meeting.

However, the issuance can only start after the Ministry of Finance confirms about the state-owned capital in the bank under guidance from the prime minister, in order to ensure the state holding ratio at the bank.

Vietinbank posted a profit last year of over 3 trillion VND (157.89 million USD). As of December 31, 2009, it had total assets of 240 trillion VND (12.63 billion USD), an increase of 26 percent over the previous year. Bad debts accounted for 967 billion VND (50.89 million USD), or 0.61 percent, of total outstanding loans.

For 2010, the bank has targeted a profit of 4 trillion VND (210 million USD), up 18 percent over last year, as well as total deposits up 20 percent by the end of the year, and assets on December 31 of 300 trillion VND (15.78 billion USD), an increase of 20 percent./.