Most banks reported satisfactory profits

Banks’ Q1 finance reports showed that they made fat profits in the quarter. Some banks reported profits increasing by two or three times in comparison with the same period last year.

Vietcombank, for example, following the record profit of VND11 trillion in 2017, has reported pre-tax profit of VND4.359 trillion in Q1 2018, a sharp increase of 59.3 percent over the same period last year.

VietinBank, the other member of the ‘big four’, reported profit of VND3 trillion in Q1, up by 19 percent.

Many joint stock banks also reported profits of trillions of dong. VP Bank, for example, made a profit of VND2.618 trillion, up by 36 percent, Techcombank VND2.568 trillion, up by 94 percent, and MB Bank VND1.918 trillion, up by 72.5 percent.

If considering the growth rate, Eximbank and VIB are leading commercial banks. 

By the end of Q1, Eximbank had obtained pre-tax profit of VND560 billion, while VIB Bank had VND518 billion, or 3.3 times higher than the same period last year.

However, ‘largest’ doesn’t always mean ‘most effective’. 

If considering total assets, BIDV is the largest bank with VND1,200 trillion, followed by VietinBank with VND1,100 trillion and Vietcombank VND1,000 trillion. However, Vietcombank’s profit is the largest in the banking system.

Among private banks, the banks with the biggest total assets include Sacombank (VND381 trillion), MB Bank (VND316 trillion) and ACB VND300 trillion).

Analysts noted that four state-owned banks are the biggest, considering their total assets, but this group of banks doesn’t have the highest capital exploitation efficiency. 

BIDV’s ROA (return on assets) was 0.16 percent in Q1 only, which means that the bank created 0.16 dong of profit from every 100 dong of its assets.

The ratios were higher for Vietcombank and VietinBank with the ROAs of 0.34 percent and 0.22 percent, respectively. However, the ratios of the two big banks were still lower MBBank (0.49 percent), TP Bank (0.42 percent), ACB (0.39 percent) and VIB (0.32 percent).

Sacombank had the lowest ROA among the group of 13 banks surveyed by Bizlive, at 0.11 percent.

The low ROA shows the results of an ineffective investment and lending policy, or high operation cost of banks. Meanwhile, the high ROA reflects the reasonable use of assets and effective business strategies.

Regarding ROE (return on equity), TP Bank is leading the surveyed banks. Its’ ROE was 7.35 percent in the first three months of the year.

As banks earn fat profits, bank officers’ income have increased sharply. A Bizlive report showed that average income is VND8-40 million a month.

US$1=VND22,000

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