VietNamNet Bridge – More than a half of commercial banks think the bad debt ratio would be unchanged or would be increasing by the end of 2013 in comparison with the end of 2012.

The Monetary Statistics and Forecast Department of the State Bank of Vietnam has found out from its survey that banks keep pessimistic about the business performance in 2013. The national economy in the first six months of the year was still full of difficulties.

Most of the credit institutions said the risks assigned to all groups of clients increased in the first half of 2013. Therefore, more than 50 percent of commercial banks have predicted that their bad debt ratios would be either increasing or remain unchanged by the end of the year.

Credit institutions have complained the business result in the first half was below the expectations.

At the December 2012’s survey, 40.2 percent of banks expect to see the business performance improving in the first half of 2013. Meanwhile, at the latest survey, only 30.4 percent said their business result has been better. 21.5 percent of banks said their business got worse (the figure was 10 percent at the December 2012’s survey).

Nearly 50 percent of banks said their pretax profit in the first half of 2013 was lower than in the second half of 2012. Most of the banks have reported the decreases of between 20 percent and less than 30 percent.

Nevertheless, 63.3 percent of commercial banks hope the business prospect would get better in the second half of 2013, while only 3.8 percent fears the situation may get worse.

In general, due to the negative factors happening in the first half of the year, 14.1 percent of banks think their business results in the whole 2013 would be worse than the last year. Meanwhile, 55.1 percent hope their performance would be improved.

Regarding the profits, 71.4 percent of banks expect to make the profit higher in the second half, though the expected increase is modest at less than 10 percent.

In general, banks prove to be less optimistic now than they were six months ago. 65 percent of banks expect better profits now, while the figure was 78.4 percent at the previous survey.

In the latest news, while a few of big commercial banks have reported satisfactory profits, others have reported the profit decreases.

Sacombank reportedly got VND1.448 trillion worth of pretax profit, fulfilling 52 percent of the yearly business plan. While other banks complained about the low credit growth rates, the bank still could obtain the growth rate of 12.9 percent. It is one of the few banks allowed by the central bank to have the credit growth rate of 20 percent this year.

Eximbank and the Military Bank have also had relatively high credit growth rates of 7 percent and 8-9 percent, respectively, by the end of the second quarter.

According to HSC Securities, the Military Bank’s pretax profit is about VND1.75 trillion. Meanwhile, Vietcombank’s profit is VND2.7 trillion.

However, both of the banks have seen the profit down in comparison with the same period of the last year, by 6 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.

TBKTVN