At a meeting with commercial banks in late April, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Le Minh Hung reported that as of March 31, credit provided to the national economy had increased by 1.3 percent compared with the beginning of the year, the lowest Q1 credit growth rate in the last six years.

Some commercial banks even reported a minus credit growth rate for the first three months of the year, including Eximbank (- 3.8 percent), Saigonbank (- 2.3 percent), VietinBank (- 1.25 percent) and BIDV (- 1 percent).

Two months later, the updates from SBV showed that outstanding loans had increased by 1.96 percent by the end of May compared with late 2019, which was much lower than the 5.74 percent of the same period last year and 6.16 percent of 2018.

The latest update released at the 2020 shareholders’ meeting showed the bank’s outstanding loans had reached VND291.4 trillion as of May 31, an increase of 9.88 percent compared with the beginning of the year.

The central bank explained that because of Covid-19, demand is weak and people have tightened their purse strings. 

However, while credit of the entire banking system in general has been growing very slowly, some banks have reported high growth rates.

OCB, for example, reported a high 8.76 percent growth rate in outstanding loans as of the end of March, reaching VND77.32 trillion.

The high credit growth rate allowed OCB to receive a high net interest income increase of 31.4 percent compared with the same period last year. Credit activities made up 59 percent of the bank’s total income (VND1.18 trillion).

SHB, with 6.4 percent, was also one of the banks with high credit growth rates. VND282.2 trillion was lent in the first three months of the year which brought a profit growth rate 24.6 percent (VND1.684 trillion).

The latest update released at the 2020 shareholders’ meeting showed the bank’s outstanding loans had reached VND291.4 trillion as of May 31, an increase of 9.88 percent compared with the beginning of the year.

As for TP Bank, its outstanding loans had increased by 5 percent as of the end of Q1 to VND100.5 trillion. The figure rose to 11 percent at the end of April, the highest in the banking system.

Analysts noted that most of the banks which had high credit growth rates in the first months of the year were joint stock banks which can satisfy CAR in accordance with Basel II standards.

Some commercial banks have reported profit after the first five months of the year. Vietcombank made a profit of VND9.1 trillion, ACB VND3.5 trillion.

Thanh Lich 

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