The State Bank of Vietnam’s latest move to reduce interest rates comes after other central banks around the globe have started easing to combat spreading weaknesses, but experts are warning that such decisions may not yield the desired effects.

The central banks of Malaysia and Indonesia on September 27 signed a currency swap agreement, which allows the exchange of local currencies between the central banks of up to 2 billion USD.

Six or seven banks are to be merged this year, according to information disclosed by Nguyen Van Binh, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, at the monthly government meeting on April 1. This will bring the number of dissolved banks to seven to ten.

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 VietNamNet Bridge – The health of commercial banks is now at their best conditions, if compared with the other months of the year, according to the State Bank of Vietnam.

There are numerous bank branches and transaction offices in big cities, while more and more “banking streets” have risen. However, the State Bank has vowed to tighten the control over banks’ network development.

 VietNamNet Bridge – There are embryonic signs of a new interest rate race among commercial banks, which have been trying to raise the deposit interest rates to improve their liquidity