Vietnam

Dong A Bank posted a pretax profit of VND676 billion in the first six months, covering 52% of their annual target.

Overseas remittance via Vietnam banks is up.

BNP Paribas inked an agreement to raise its stake in Orient Commercial Bank from 15% to 20% after obtaining approval from the central bank. The French bank will acquire 27 million shares issued by OCB to increase its chartered capital from VND2.73 trillion to VND3 trillion. BNP Paribas has been the strategic foreign investor of OCB since 2007. The two banks now have strengthened cooperation in the area of trade finance, helping OCB to link with trade centers of BNP Paribas in 80 countries worldwide.

Ficombank inked a deal with  Remit2Vietnam in transferring remittances from overseas to Vietnam.

ABBank posted a pretax profit of VND 307.6 billion in the first six months, meeting 46.3% of the year target.

The Vietnam Eximbank allocated VND 2 trillion to lend local exporters at interest rates of 19.5% p.a. The loan program lasts for 6 months, designed to create favourable conditons for enterprises to access cheap bank loans as requested by the State Bank of Vietnam. The interest rate of 19.5% p.a. was subject to apply for loans to add working capital, purchase goods, materials, andnpay for production costs, etc, it added.  

Banks in Vietnam will face a fine of up to VND100 million if they buy or sell foreign currencies at unofficial rates or impose illegal transaction fees on customers.

Commonewealth Bank of Australian and Singapore's UOB can raise their staeks in two Vietanmese banks to the 20 % ceiling for foreign ownership according to Vietnam's central bank.

Bao Viet Bank raised demand deposit interest rates for businesses to the highest of 12% per annum.

Government investigators found Asian Commercial Bank and Sacombank violating interest rate support.

Maritime Bank and Vinacomin signed an agreement to cooperate in many fields. Under the agreement, Maritime Bank will provide the State-owned group such services as local and international payment, credits, risk management, and foreign exchange. In addition, the bank will provide consulting and financial services to raise long-term capital for Vinacomin in local and international financial markets. Moreover, the two sides also agreed to consider opportunities to jointly invest in projects. Le Minh Chuan, CEO of Vinacomin, said in a statement that Vinacomin’s capital demand was around US$1.6 billion annually to fund its projects. Therefore, the support from credit institutions like Maritime Bank is very important for the group, he said.

As many as 50% of issued ATMs in Vietnam are unused, according to statistics from the Vietnam Bank Card Association.

Sai Gon commercial Bank launched a preferential program to purchase dollars at 0.1-0.3% higher than listed prices.

GPBank passed the plan for this year's target of 35 trillion dong in total assets up 26 percent.

Vietnam-Germany Steel Pipe Joint Stock Co signed a short term credit contract worth 100 billion dong ABBank's Vinh Phuc branch to support its working capital.

OCB has secured central bank permission to sell another 5 percent of stake to BNP Paribas.