The highest interest rate now is 7.8 percent per annum, applied to deposits of VND999 billion at minimum. 

As other investment channels such as real estate and securities are becoming risky, many people who have idle money have shifted to make deposits at banks. 

Anticipating the trend, many commercial banks, especially medium and small sized, have increased their deposit interest rates to attract idle money. 

ABBank raised its deposit interest rates by 0.1-0.4 percentage point applied to 9-month-or-less deposits. Depositors now get 4 percent in interest rate for 3-month, 5.5 percent for six-month and 5.6 percent for 9-month deposits. 

VPBank has raised interest rates for some long-term deposits. It offers 5.9 percent for 36-month deposit instead of 5.1 percent, applied to deposits of than VND300 million. 24-month deposits now enjoy interest rates of 5.8-6.6 percent instead of 5.1-6.1 percent, depending on the value of the deposit. 

Meanwhile, Military Bank has raised interest rates by 0.15-0.2 percentage point. Depositors now enjoy an interest rate of 2.9 percent for one-month deposit, 4.4 percent for 6-month, 5.75 percent for 24-month, and 6.36 percent for 36-month deposits. 

Other commercial banks such as Ban Viet, BacABank, Saigonbank, OCB, Vietbank and PVCombank have also increased deposit interest rates by 0.1-0.2 percentage point. 

Banks are offering higher interest rates for online depositing than traditional depositing (at the counter). VPBank, for example, has raised the interest rate by 0.2 percentage point to 6.9 percent for 36-month online deposits, applied to deposits of VND50 billion or higher. 

For deposits from VND10 billion to below VND50 billion, the interest rate has increased from 6.1 percent to 6.7 percent. Meanwhile, the interest rate of 6.1 percent (+0.5 percentage point) is offered to deposits of less than VND300 million. Interest rate increases have also been seen in 24-month online deposits to 6-6.8 percent per annum. 

Prior to that, NamA Bank also raised interest rates of most terms of deposits, by 0.1-0.3 percentage point, applied to online deposits from individual clients. 

Meanwhile, Maritime Bank (MSB) adds 0.8 percentage points to online deposits. 

The interest rates for online deposits at OCB in April 2022 rose from 5.6 percent to 6.2 percent per annum for 6-month deposit, from 5.9 percent to 6.4 percent for 9month and 6.3 to 6.5 percent for 12-month deposits. 

At HDBank, the online interest rates have increased from 3.1 percent to 3.8 percent for one-month deposit, from 3.2 percent to 3.9 percent for 3-month, from 5.4 to 5.6 percent for six- and nine-month, and from 5.7 percent to 5.95 percent for 12-month deposits. 

While most private banks have raised their deposit interest rates, the ‘big four’ (Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank and Agribank) have kept interest rates stable for the last half a year. 

Analysts believe that interest rates will increase this year because of higher demand for capital, pressure on inflation, and stiffer competition with other investment channels such as real estate and securities. 

VnDirect has predicted that deposit interest rates would rise by 0.3-0.5 percentage point this year.

The highest deposit interest rate is offered by Techcombank – 7.8 percent. However, the rate is only applied to 12-month deposits of VND999 billion or higher. 

Some banks are offering interest rates higher than 7 percent, namely SCB (7.6 percent), NamABank (7.4 percent), MSB (7 percent), and about 7 percent, namely LienVietPostBank (6.99 percent), MBBank (6.9 percent), VietBank (6.9 percent) and Viet A (6.9 percent). The rates are applied only to large deposits of hundreds of billions of dong or higher. 

Among the ‘big four’, Vietinbank offers the highest interest rate – 5.6 percent. The highest interest rate of the other three banks is 5.5 percent.

Analysts said they could see very big gaps in the interest rates of the same deposit terms between different banks. For six-month deposits, for example, Vietcombank and VietinBank only pay 4 percent per annum, while many other banks offer 6 percent per annum.

Tuan Dung