The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) recently held its year-end meeting with international financial and monetary organizations, foreign banks in Vietnam, and foreign agencies with a working relationship with the central bank, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Representatives from international monetary and financial organizations and foreign credit institutions expressed their appreciation of Vietnam’s achievements in macroeconomic stability, especially in the management of monetary policy and the restructuring of the banking system.

Talking about the operational performance of the banking system in 2017, Mr. Eric Sigwick, Country Director of the ADB in Vietnam, said the government improved important parts of the legal framework on the restructuring of weak banks and bad debt resolution, such as Resolution No. 42/2017/QH14 dated June 21, 2017, the pilot settlement of bad debts at credit institutions, laws amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Credit Institutions, and Decision No. 1058/QD-TTg dated July 19, 2017 on approving the scheme to restructure credit institutions in combination with NPL resolution in the 2016-2020 period.

He added that the SBV has conducted flexible monetary policy management. Commercial banks themselves enforce more stringent internal control and other specific solutions to prevent and control risk, which have strengthened the soundness and stability of the banking system.

Deputy SBV Governor Dao Minh Tu said that 2017 was the first time in many years the government reached 13 comprehensive socioeconomic development targets.

Growth was 6.7 per cent for the year. In the banking sector, monetary policy was run in line with fiscal policy and other macroeconomic policies, aiming to curb inflation at 4 per cent, while interest rates were stable and tending to fall, creating favorable conditions for the economy, credit growth was positive and safe, focusing on the production and business, and the exchange rate was stable.

Liquidity in the banking system was maintained and foreign exchange reserves reached a record $46 billion during the year.

The SBV will continue to operate flexible and active monetary policy to support liquidity in the system while ensuring the stability of financial markets in general in 2018.

VN Economic Times