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).