A number of banks at the end of July reported significant increases in H1 profits on strong credit growth despite pressures from the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic not only creates challenges for banks, but also pushes them to foster digital transformation to survive, experts have said.

Tran Tuan Anh, director of a three-star hotel in HCM City’s District 1, said hopes of a business revival after earlier waves of COVID-19 were contained have vanished with the latest outbreak, and bankruptcy looms.

Recently, the interbank interest rates suddenly jumped, causing many people to worry whether bank lending rates will increase in the coming time while the business and production activities have been facing many difficulties due to Covid-19.

A series of large corporations reported a sudden increase in profits in the first quarter of 2021 and a positive outlook for the whole year despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was an unusual development but was not too surprising.

Local credit institutions are enjoying a rise in bancassurance activities with more exclusive deals coming, according to industry insiders.

Bank tickers will remain in the spotlight, with investors racing to capitalise on bright profit prospects.

Given abundant liquidity and low demand for credit, banks are offering attractive loans during the year-end period.

Banks are pushing the sale of life insurance products (bancassurance) in the context of low credit growth since the beginning of this year due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

LienVietPostBank has said it will complete the transfer of its LPB shares from the unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) to the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) in the fourth quarter of this year.

New approaches, especially regarding activities of banks, are required to boost the reach of mobile money agents and expand financial inclusion in Vietnam.

Banks, especially State-owned banks, are expected to increase their capital significantly this year as they are allowed to retain profits or pay dividend in shares instead of cash as previously.

Vietnam’s early efforts to weather the COVID-19 storm have helped its economy to reopen much sooner than others, with many sectors that have suffered badly from the outbreak – from retail to finance –now recovering with poise.    

Banks have embarked on the conversion of magnetic payment cards into chip cards for greater security, but the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly slowed down their efforts, making it difficult for them to meet the deadline.

The Ministry of Finance has slashed administration fees in numerous sectors to help the economy get back on its feet when the COVID-19 pandemic eases.

Many travel firms affected by Covid-19 are struggling to access loans with low interest rates from the Government’s credit package as banks have denied their applications out of concern over their ability to repay the debt

Many banks in Ho Chi Minh City are selling their mortgaged assets, mainly properties worth trillions of Vietnamese dong, to speed up the resolution of bad debts.

Incomplete statistics show that businesses have enjoyed cuts of at least 100 trillion VND (4.25 billion USD) to support them amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thirty-seven commercial banks have confirmed the reduction of fees for fast interbank fund transfers following the move of the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) to halve the switching fees for local banks from Wednesday.