Many domestic banks are trying various ways to meet their credit growth targets for 2013 amid difficult economic situation.
Banks say it is difficult to meet goals
The State Bank of Vietnam’s Credit Department Director, Nguyen Viet Manh, said that even though credit growth has improved significantly compared to the same period last year, it is still far from the expected target of 12%. To be able to meet the target, loan disbursements must increase by 1.5% or VND 40 trillion. But the task is proving difficult amid a sluggish economy.
Dong A Bank’s financial report showed that they only had VND400 billion (USD19.2 million) in profit, a decrease of 55% from last year. According to the report, they had to give up nearly VND500 billion to the risk prevention fund and their bad debts is accounted for 2.93% of outstanding loans as of September 30.
Meanwhile, representatives from many banks also said that their dividend percentage this year would be low. Some banks have chosen to lower their gap between lending and deposit interest rates in order to attract more borrowers.
The vice director of a bank in the southern region said their credit growth rate will not be able to reach 10%. “We implemented many promotion and stimulus programmes, but it won’t cover up the spending on risk prevention fund and interest for depositors,” he said.
The deputy head of ACB Bank, Nguyen Thanh Toai, also said, “This year we focused on recovering mature debts so our credit growth rate appears weak.”
Meanwhile, there are still banks that performed well, such as Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV). In the first nine months of the year, profit of Sacombank is VND1.7 trillion and BIDV’s profit is VND3.1 trillion. However, BIDV currently still owns over VND8.7 trillion of bad debts.
Đăng ký: VietNam News