Vietnam

Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam lowered the lending interest rates for Vietnam dong further by 1-2 percentage points from the current 18-19% a year. The bank's annual interest rate is now 17% at most for normal loans and 15-16% for manufacturers of farm and export products. The short-term rate for riskier areas like stock investment and consumption is 18.5%. This is the bank’s third interest rate cut in two months after the release of the central bank’s Instruction 02 to cap the deposit rates for Vietnam dong and the U.S dollar at credit institutions and foreign bank branches. Chairman Tran Bac Ha of BIDV said this rate cut is aimed at assisting the struggling business community. However, it will affect the bank’s profit as BIDV must obey the ceiling deposit rate of 14% as regulated in Instruction 02, he added. BIDV’s interest rate cut was announced in the context that many small commercial banks are having a hard time with liquidity and must look for supply from the inter-bank market. Commenting on this issue, Ha of BIDV said the interest rate hike did not mean any problem in monetary policy and banking system. “I believe the inter-bank interest rates will soon go down,” he said. The State Bank of Vietnam announced on Tuesday liquidity in the banking system had returned to normal after some banks had faced liquidity difficulties in the past few days. The announcement was made in order to allay concerns over low liquidity at banks due to the recent inter-bank rate spike. According to a source, the inter-bank rate on Monday was at 20-21% for overnight loans, 22-23% for one-week term and 25-26% for one-month term.

Local small Vietnamese lenders were forced to borrow in interbank market with sky-high interest rates after seeing massive deposits outflows.

The State Bank of Vietnam announced four fundamental principles in restructuring the local banking system.

The lender to tap more than 10,000 high-end professionals, or entrepreneurs who have built up their business in Vietnam.

Vietnam's central bank is paving the way for mergers and acquisitions among banks to step up the restructuring of the sector hit by rising bad debt.

The State Bank of Vietnam allowed 2 more commercial banks to sell gold deposits to intervene the local gold market.

Sacombank estimated its pre-tax profit in January-September at VND2.17 trillion unconsolidated, according to Vietnam Daily News, citing a Dau tu newspaper report.

An HD Bank branch located at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District was caught severely violating state regulation on deposit interest rate ceiling, the State Bank of Vietnam has said.

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has enabled customers to transact in Chinese Yuan for import and export dealings with counterparts in the People’s Republic.

The State Bank of Vietnam governor has issued a decision approving Southern Bank's application to increase its chartered capital to over 3.212 trillion dong., reports Vietnam Daily News.

Twelve Vietnamese commercial banks which account for 85 percent market share have reached an agreement not to exceed the deposit interest rate ceiling of 14 percent per year, according to Vietnam Daily News.

Pham Huy Hung, chair of VietinBank-CTG, confirmed that his bank has the lowest bad debt ratio in Vietnam's banking system.

The governor of the State Bank of Vietnam has approved Southern Bank's application to increase its chartered capital to over 3.212 trillion dong, according to a Vietnam Daily News report.

Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank will set aside two trillion dong to lend at the preferential interest rate of from 17.5 percent per year for food producers and processors.

TrustBank is offering incentives for small and medium-sized enterprises to serve purchase and processing of products for exports, agriculture, seafood that commit to use the bank's international payment service, reports Vietnam Daily News.

Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank has received approval from the governor of State Bank of Vietnam to raise its chartered capital to 3 trillion dong.