Vietnam’s banks are having difficulties meeting Basel II standards, including the quality of database, the qualifications of staff, technology infrastructure, training, and budget for consultants.

Banks, which all reported big profits for 2018, are using the money to improve their financial capability.

The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Le Minh Hung, is standing firm on low credit growth. This is also an issue that S&P emphasized in in its latest report.

The State Treasury has mobilized trillions of dong via bond issuance, but still cannot spend the money because of slow disbursement in state-funded projects.

The central bank believes that the consumer finance market in Vietnam is still in an early development stage, and needs to be controlled strictly by risk management tools.

After Techcombank announced its ‘zero-dong service’ policy, in which its clients pay no fee for some kinds of services, other banks have followed the move.

Instead of turning their back to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they did in the past, commercial banks are approaching enterprises despite problems in accounting and collateral.

 2018 was the year witnessing the outstanding development of the new payment method via mPOS device. 

The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has asked for the control over real estate loans by credit institutions to be enhanced, especially in areas showing signs of land price fever.

The banking sector pledged to meet the capital demand for production and business, especially in five prioritised sectors, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam Dao Minh Tu said at a conference in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

The need to ease policy rates in the near-term is unlikely, given the country’s still-robust growth and heightened foreign direct investment.

After reaping high profits and gaining growth of 30-40 percent in 2017-2018, Vietnam’s commercial banks have become cautious about their business plans for 2019.

The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has assigned a credit growth limit to each commercial bank in 2019, with priority given to those who met Basel II’s capital safety and risk management standards ahead of schedule.

The State Bank of Vietnam issued Circular No. 03/2019/TT-NHNN on amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 32/2013/TT-NHNN guiding the implementation of regulations on restricting the use of foreign currencies in Vietnam.

VietNamNet Bridge - Both Vietnamese and foreign banks are rushing to raise their chartered capital to satisfy the requirements of Basel II.

VietNamNet Bridge - More foreign investors are attempting to take over Vietnam’s finance companies, which are in a ‘golden development stage’.

VietNamNet Bridge - Nearly half of the cooperation agreements between Vietnamese banks and foreign strategic shareholders have been terminated after one decade.

VietNamNet Bridge - The four major groups of players in the mobile payment market are fintechs, banks, mobile network operators and technology firms.

VietNamNet Bridge - Experts say the technological infrastructure in Vietnam is ready for the mobile payment boom.

VietNamNet Bridge - After almost a decade, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is considering sharp cuts in banks’ reserve requirements applied to huge amounts of deposits.