VietNamNet Bridge - Financial expert Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu said to reach the regional level, a bank must have total assets of at least $50 billion and equity of about $5 billion.

Three commercial banks in Vietnam, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) and the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) are actively raising the scale, capital, and governance level to become one of the first regional-class banks by the end of 2015.

The scheme to restructure credit organizations of Vietnam targets to have at least one to two banks reaching the scale and level of regional banks. Of the three above banks, Vietinbank takes advantage of equity and total assets compared to BIDV and Vietcombank.

This year the three banks set very high goals. Vietinbank plans to earn pre-tax profits of VND7.3 trillion CTG, Vietcombank VND5.9 trillion, and BIDV VND7.5 trillion. Vietinbank's dividend is set at 9%, BIDV 9.4%, and Vietconbank 10%.

The three leading banks of Vietnam also entered Forbes Global 2000 list, with Vietinbank ranked 1,902, with market value as of 5/2015 of $3 billion; turnover of $2.23 billion. BIDV ranked 1,913 with a market value of $2.3 billion and revenue of $2.44 billion. Vietcombank ranked 1,985 with $1.65 billion of revenue, and $4.4 billion of market value.

According to Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, to reach the regional level, a bank must have total assets of at least $50 billion and equity of about $5 billion.

To date, all three banks are growing quickly in equity, total assets and network after merging with weak banks. However, higher hopes are placed on Vietinbank and Vietcombank.

Recently, the State Bank Governor Nguyen Van Binh expressed the hope that Vietinbank would become one of the top two leading banks of Vietnam, which reach the regional level.

Vietinbank has completed merger with PG Bank, bringing its network to nearly 1,200 points of transactions, among the top banks with the largest network of Vietnam.

Vietinbank is about to increase its charter capital to VND49 trillion and its total assets to VND746 trillion and list an additional 2.4 billion shares to become one of the top six companies on the stock market.

Meanwhile, Vietcombank is seeking a small bank for merger to raise its chartered capital to VND30 trillion and total assets to VND650 trillion.

It is expected that by 2020, Vietcombank’s equity will reach about VND95 trillion and total assets VND1.2 million billion.

BIDV has announced that it is the first bank completing a merger in phase 2 of the scheme of restructuring credit institutions.

BIDV finalized its merger with the Mekong Delta Housing Bank (MHB) in just 55 days, which helped to increase BIDV’s network to 1,000 points of transaction.

BIDV is about to raise its registered capital by VND1 trillion from divestments at VID Public Bank, issuance of shares to strategic shareholders, existing shareholders, and issuance of bonds to raise capital.

As for the system of subsidiaries and affiliates, all three banks have more than 10 financial, securities, insurance, financial leasing, and fund management companies ... and offices in several countries including Germany, Singapore, and branches in neighboring countries as Laos, Myanmar. They also participate in joint-venture banks with Russia and Laos. Vietinbank alone has a jewelry company. This is an important basis for these banks to become financial group at the regional and international level.

In the restructuring of the banking system, all three banks are involved in supporting weak banks to help stabilize the system. Vietinbank assists Oceanbank and Vietcombank helps the Vietnam Construction Bank. BIDV supports the merger of the three banks of De Nhat, Tin Nghia and Saigon.

Some have questioned whether these are "savings" to help these banks grow further. Because despite the merger of smaller banks, these banks’ equity has only reached $1-$2 billion and total assets about $30 billion.

A banking expert said that the banks may cooperate with other big banks to become "giants".

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