Financial reports released by some banks in the first quarter have reflected the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business activities, with declining profits and rocketing bad debts.

Many banks in Ho Chi Minh City are selling their mortgaged assets, mainly properties worth trillions of Vietnamese dong, to speed up the resolution of bad debts.

By March 17 noon, most of the commercial banks in Vietnam had lowered their interest rates on savings accounts with terms of less than 6 months after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) announced its policy rate cut a day earlier.

Vietnamese banks are following their corporate clients by expanding abroad. 

Many banks are auctioning mortgaged assets, mainly real estate, worth trillions of Vietnamese dong to speed up the resolution of non-performing loans.

Some banks have recovered trillions of Vietnamese dong in bad debt by selling off assets secured with non-performing loans in the first half of 2019.

The handling of bad debt among credit institutions would be audited this year in order to formulate recommendations for effectively implementing a National Assembly resolution, according to the State Audit Office of Viet Nam (SAV).

 Remittances to HCMC steady, Capital market faces imbalances, Impacts of revolution 4.0 on banking sector, Detailed guidance needed to tackle bad debt: experts, Sacombank, Becamex Binh Phuoc ink deal            

VietNamNet Bridge - The year 2017 saw a number of foreign investors leaving their Vietnamese partners and divesting from banks they once made every effort to develop.

VietNamNet Bridge - While institutional shareholders register to divest shares of listed banks, inside shareholders and relatives of the members of the board of management are rushing to collect shares.

Dang Van Thanh lost in the battle for control over Sacombank five years ago, but he has returned to business and is prospering. However, the former winner in the bank battle – Tram Be – has been sentenced to prison.

As the owner of a hospital, securities company, bank and large properties, Tram Be, the banking tycoon, and his family amassed a huge fortune until the day he was arrested.

VietNamNet Bridge - The businessman Tram Be became even more famous after a hostile takeover deal in the banking sector, taking a key position at Sacombank and changing the fate of the bank.

VietNamNet Bridge - ACB, Sacombank and Eximbank, the three most influential banks in the south, like MB and Techcombank in the north, are encountering serious difficulties.

VietNamNet Bridge - There are signs showing that Dang Van Thanh, a one-time tycoon, is returning to business with ambitious plans.

VietNamNet Bridge - Nguyen Duc Kien, or ‘mogul Kien,’ and Tram Be once had long arms in the banking sector. But not now.

VietNamNet Bridge - Foreign investors’ high interest in the consumer goods sector which has been growing very rapidly in recent years is believed to help boost merger & acquisitions (M&A), according to VnExpress.

 A series of banks are facing towering bad debt provisions that ate up their profits for the first three quarters of the year, which had been promisingly reported.

Vingroup has spent huge sums of money to take over Maximark, while KIDO Group has decided to invest in Rong Viet Securities Company. Meanwhile, VTV national TV has announced it will withdraw capital from subsidiaries.