The Vietnam Banks Association has just sent a dispatch to propose the Ministry of Information and Communications lower charges for banking services via SMS.

The number of consumer loans has been increasing rapidly, but the legal framework to control the activities is not strong.

Domestic banks are expected to face increasing competition, especially as European banks will be able to access the Vietnamese market when the European Union-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) takes effect.

A number of banks have announced plans to auction off their collateral assets in an attempt to speed up bad debt recovery.

Because of Covid-19, 5 million workers have lost jobs or seen their income decrease.

Shareholders at meetings this year are expressing caution about setting specific business targets due to Covid-19.

Despite a worldwide economy hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the banking sector has still enjoyed a good first half of the year and are on course to meet targets.

The increasing number of guests booking tours and hotel rooms during the summer vacation has given a much needed boost to the tourism industry, which has been down due to the Covid-19 pandemic over the past several months.

M&A in banking sector is forecast to be exciting in the near future as many banks are accelerating to restructure and raise capital to meet Basel II standards’ deadline by 2020 set by the central bank, experts said.

Vietnam is experiencing a boom in mobile payments as more and more e-wallet providers have aggressively joined the market.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Changing top managers was a highlight of Vietnamese banks in 2015.

VietNamNet Bridge - As of September 30, BIDV had taken the lead for bad debt among the three largest State-owned commercial banks of Vietnam, followed by Vietcombank with over VND7,100 billion and VietinBank, with approximately VND4,700 trillion.