Under the project to streamline the Vietnamese stock and insurance market by 2020, listing shares is compulsory for local commercial banks. This is one of the measures needed to diversify commodities in the market.

Bank shares have been among the fastest growing securities over the last few years and are leading the market. All listed banks have been making a profit and thriving. Some of them have seen profits soar from hundreds of billion to trillions of dong.

According to Saigon Securities Incorporated (SSI), the banking sector makes the greatest contribution to the stock market’s growth: VND68 trillion out of total VND276.2 trillion brought by listed companies in 2018, an increase of 31 percent over 2017.

Vietcombank was No 1 in terms of net profit with VND16.4 trillion worth of post-tax profit, up by 61 percent compared with 2017. 

The second position belonged to Techcombank with VND8.462 trillion, up by 31 percent, followed by BIDV with VND7.358 trillion, up by 8 percent, and VP Bank VND7.355 trillion.

Economists said it is better to list shares on the bourse, because the listing will help improve share liquidity, and make business activities transparent, thus improving banks’ prestige in investors’ eyes.

Moreover, the listing will help banks access more investors, not only Vietnamese, but foreign investors as well.

To date, only 17 out of 34 banks, including three so-called zero-dong banks, have listed on the two bourses and UpCom. Of these, 10 banks list shares on HOSE, including BID, CTG, EIB, HDB, MBB, STB, TCB, TPB, VCB and VPB, three banks on HNX (ACB, NVB and SHB) and 4 on UPCoM (BAB, KLB, LPB and VIB).

As such, 50 percent of banks still have not listed shares.

In 2018, about 10 banks had plans to list shares on the bourse, but only three banks could fulfil their plans, namely Techcombank, HD Bank and TP Bank. All  of them listed shares on the HCM City bourse.

They were also listed among banks with the most impressive business results in 2018. Techcombank jumped to the second position in the banking system, just after Vietcombank with the profit of VND10.7 trillion. TP Bank saw the profit double and HD bank reported the record high profit at VND4 trillion.

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M. Ha