Vietnam banks expect to post strong profit growth

Commercial banks in Vietnam posted solid earnings in 2010 with an average growth in profit of over 20 per cent. Most of the growth is ascribed to lending and foreign exchange trading.

Partly-equitised Vietinbank posted a pre-tax profit of US$203.25 million for the year, up 48 per cent over 2009, while Vietcombank also saw its pre-tax profit rise by 21 per cent to US$252 million.

"Most of our profit came from credit operations, with institutional borrowers accounting for 70 per cent of total outstanding loans," said Vietinbank chairman Pham Huy Hung.

Maritime Bank reported robust profit growth of 51 per cent against the previous year, with a pre-tax profit of $70.69 million. Military Bank earned $97.67 million, a year-on-year increase of 50 per cent.

Eximbank, Sacombank, LienViet Bank, An Binh Bank and Habubank fetched profits of up 20-55 per cent against 2009.

However, profits of Asia Commercial Bank grew by just 9 per cent in 2010, totalling US$144.2 million.

Ocean Commercial Bank reported a profit of over US$32.13 million for 2010 and also exceeded profit forecasts for the year.

But the bank's general manager Trinh Van Tuan said opportunities would not come as easily as they had in the past two years given the tightening monetary policy.