The government has submitted to the National Assembly a report on the investment, management and use of state’s capital in enterprises in 2023, and assessments about state-owned commercial banks.

The report, prepared based on audited consolidated financial statements of ‘the big four’, including Vietcombank, Agribank, VietinBank and BIDV (Bank of Investment and Development of Vietnam), and reports to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on December 31, 2023, showed the big four gained positive growth last year, while ensuring capital adequacies.

As of the end of 2023, the total liabilities and stockholder equities of state-owned banks had reached VND8,218,023 billion, up 7.9 percent compared with late 2022.

Regarding capital use, deposits at the banks had reached VND173.201 trillion, down 28.3 percent.

The deposits and loans at other credit institutions had reached VND1,111,458 billion, up 14.5 percent.

The total outstanding loans provided by the big four had increased by 12.9 percent by the end of 2023 to VND5,938,588 billion.

The report showed high credit quality with the ratio of bad debts to total outstanding loans of 1.29 percent, lower than the 1.32 percent in 2022.

The bad debts at state-owned banks were settled in 2023 through different ways: borrowers paid debts, banks foreclosed mortgaged assets, and banks made provisions against risks, worth VND174.338 billion, up 45.8 percent over late 20222. The provisions used were VND50.641 billion, a decrease of 19.1 percent compared with late 2022.

Regarding business results, the total revenue of the big four in 2023 was VND662.987 trillion, up 19.3 percent over 2022, while pre-tax profit was VND119,682 billion, up 15.1 percent.

As for investment activities, by the end of 2023, the total balance of investment securities of the State-owned banks was VND 735,673 billion, down 11.4 percent compared to the end of 2022.

The ROE (return on equity) by the end of 2023, according to consolidated financial statements, had reached 18.62 percent, while ROA (return on assets) was 1.17 percent.

The commercial banks had paid VND37.238 trillion to the state budget as of the end of last year, including VND12.282 trillion from Agribank, VND6.448 trillion from BIDV, VND11.648 trillion from Vietcombank, and VND6.86 trillion from VietinBank.

Sources told VietNamNet that Vietcombank, one of the big four, may admit CBBank, a small bank, under the SBV initiated plan on mandatory restructuring and transfer of weak banks. 

Vietcombank lent VND10 trillion to CBBank in 2022 and VND6.7 trillion in 2023.

Meanwhile, another weak bank, OceanBank, may be transferred to Military Bank.

Tuan Nguyen