The third quarter financial reports released by 27 listed banks showed that 26 of the banks saw positive growth in deposits.

SeABank saw an outstanding growth rate of deposits (+ 14.4 percent) compared with the previous quarter. The deposit at the end of the third quarter reached VND140 trillion.

HDBank had a deposit growth rate of 10.4 percent in the third quarter and VND341 trillion in the first three quarters, leading banks with a 58 percent growth rate.

VPBank also reported big deposits of VND421 trillion as of September 30, up 8.7 percent over the quarter before and 39 percent over the beginning of the year. 

The other commercial banks having high deposit growth rates included NamA Bank (+ 21 percent compared with the beginning of the year), VietBank (+ 24.9 percent), SHB (+ 18.2 percent), BacABank (+ 18.2 percent), OCB (+ 12.7 percent) and MSB (+1 1 percent). 

As such, by September 30, the total deposits at the 27 banks had reached VND9.22 quadrillion, up 11 percent.

Three out of four state-invested commercial banks, namely BIDV, Vietcombank and VietinBank, are leading the banking system in deposit volume. Agribank has not released its financial report for the third quarter.

The figures were VND1.567 quadrillion for BIDV, up 7.5 percent, Vietcombank VND1.34 quadrillion, up 8.5 percent, and VietinBank VND1.31 quadrillion, up 4.9 percent.

While the growth rates of the big three were much lower than that of joint stock banks, their exact amounts of deposits were much higher.

Among private banks, Sacombank is leading in terms of deposit volume, VND507 trillion. Meanwhile, TPBank was the only bank reporting minus growth rate in deposits (-0.6 percent).

Because of record high deposits, banks have to pay high interest to depositors though they have slashed interest rates to unprecedented low levels.

BIDV, for example, had to pay VND63 trillion for deposit interest in the first nine months, up 61 percent, VietinBank VND53 trillion, up 58 percent, and Vietcombank VND40.565 trillion, up 76 percent. 

Meanwhile, VPBank’s pay for deposit interest increased by 112 percent (VND19.5 trillion) and Sacombank’s by 92 percent.

The latest report of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) showed that in August, people deposited VND43.723 trillion in August, a considerable increase compared with VND6.7 trillion in July, VND35.3 trillion in June and VND14.7 trillion in May.

Observers stressed that banks’ payments for deposits increased not because of an interest rate increase, but because of a deposit increase in recent months.

Tuan Nguyen