The State Bank of Vietnam has given the Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) the green light to sell shares to foreign investors, according to Vietcombank chairman Nghiem Xuan Thanh.

“This will be a positive sign for the market,” said Thanh at a conference on the bank’s 2018 business conference last week.

According to the bank’s restructuring plan until 2020 approved by the central bank’s governor Le Minh Hung, he said his bank is striving to make the list of top 100 banks in Asia, and become one of the world’s top 300 financial corporations.

The 2017 business results of the bank showed that total deposits at the bank amounted to VND889.7 trillion (US$39.1 billion) last year, rising by 38.7% year-on-year and beating its target by 18%.

Besides, its outstanding loans reached more than VND553 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%, which is below the cap set by the central bank.

Though Vietcombank set low interest rates last year, its capital growth was much higher than other banks’, said the chairman, noting the amounts raised at low rates accounted for roughly 50% of its total capital, enabling the bank to offer the lowest interest rates on the credit market.

He added the ratio of non-performing loans was 1.1% last year, a year-on-year decline of 0.35 percentage points. “This level may be the lowest among credit institutions in Vietnam,” he noted.

Notably, Vietcombank reported a record pre-tax profit of over VND11 trillion last year, up a staggering 32.9% from a year earlier.

SGT