The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) on January 17 cut its rate by 0.2% per year for terms under 12 months, pulling interest rates for 1-2 month, 3-month and 6-9-month deposits down to 1.7%, 2% and 3% per year, respectively. The highest interest rate at the bank is 4.7% per year when customers deposit for 12 months or more.

Vietcombank currently applies the lowest deposit interest rates among the four largest State-owned banks, including Vietcombank, the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), and the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank).

Agribank follows with the latest deposit interest rates at the bank going down by 0.2% - 0.4% per annum for terms under 12 months. Its interest rate for a 3-6-month term experienced the most significant decrease, falling to 2.1% from 2.5%. For terms from 6 to under 12 months, the interest rate was down to 3.2% from 3.5% per year.

BIDV and VietinBank have also simultaneously cut deposit interest rates by 0.3% per annum for terms under 12 months.

They apply the same interest rate for 1-2 month deposits at 1.9% per year. Customers depositing for a term of 3-6 months and 6-12 months at the two banks will receive an interest rate of 2.2% and 3.2% per year, respectively.

All Agribank, BIDV, and VietinBank still maintain the previous deposit interest rates at 5% per year when customers deposit for 12 months or more, and 5.3% per year for terms of 24 months or more.

On January 17, the Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) and the Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) announced a reduction of their deposit interest rates by 0.1% or 0.2% per year compared to the previous week.

Since the beginning of January, many commercial banks have cut their deposit interest rates, including Techcombank, KienLongBank, PVCombank and SCB./.VNA