VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) has purchased 39 trillion VND (1.8 billion USD) in bad debts, of which 200 billion VND (9.4 million USD) has been recovered, said VAMC's vice president Nguyen Quoc Hung.

Further, the wholly-State-owned company plans to purchase an additional 10 trillion VND (473 million USD) during the first quarter of this year, though there will be pressure to sell the purchased debts in 2014.

VAMC is also drawing up plans to restructure purchased debts, so as to set up new rooms for companies to gain new loans.

Regarding plans on debt refinancing through special bonds issued by VAMC, the head of the State Bank of Vietnam’s Monetary Policy Department, Nguyen Thi Hong, said on February 28 that these plans have not yet been carried out.

SBV and VAMC are evaluating each case to determine the volume and time needed to refinance debts. Refinanced volume must be no more than 70 percent of the price of bonds issued by VAMC, pursuant to current laws.

The large purchase by VAMC has helped Vietnamese banks remove bad debt from their books and polish their balance sheets. Under standards set by the central bank, the bad debt ratio of the system increased from 4.08 percent in 2012 to 4.73 percent in October 2013, though the ratio was reduced to 3.63 percent in December the same year.

Including bad debt rescheduled under Decision No780/QD-NHNN dated April 23, 2012, Vietnam's bad debt ratio would rise to about 9 percent, according to the central bank’s announcement last week.

Earlier this week, the central bank issued a regulation that requires VAMC to publish information pertaining to its management policies, internal regulations on buying and selling non-performing loans, its processes and methods for calculating loan price and assets, and its processes and methods for selling loans and assets. The regulation will come into effect on June 1.

Source: Vietnam Plus