What will the interest rate on savings deposits be in the future?

According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) report on the developments in the money market during the week of April 21-25, interbank interest rates for overnight, 1-week, and 2-week terms decreased sharply compared to the previous week, reaching 2.46%, 2.88%, and 4.18% per year, respectively.

However, with the SBV's net withdrawal of VND19,720 billion in the open market, analysts believe that short-term interest rates may increase again in trading sessions this week.

At the beginning of the trading session on April 29, the State Bank announced the central exchange rate of the Vietnamese Dong against the USD increased by 12 VND, at 23,960 VND.

The reference exchange rate at the State Bank of Vietnam's transaction office for buying and selling increased slightly, at 23,762-26,158 VND.

However, the exchange rate on the free market has approached the threshold of 26,500 VND/USD, an increase of nearly 4% in April.

Managing exchange rates and interest rates is a difficult problem for any central bank. To control exchange rates, interest rates must be raised. However, high interest rates will cause difficulties for production, and the real estate market - which depends heavily on credit - is at risk of freezing.

However, maintaining a weak domestic currency will benefit exports. Moreover, the SBV has kept interest rates low for quite a long time to support businesses to recover production.

TP bank 2024 (95).jpg — *Deposit interest rates are starting to increase again. Photo: Nam Khanh.*

With recent developments in the world economy, especially US President Donald Trump's issuance of reciprocal tax policies on countries, the world's macroeconomic situation is increasingly unpredictable, making forecasts obsolete.

According to Mr. Nguyen Canh Anh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eximbank, the instability of the world economy will affect the domestic economy. For the banking industry, such instability leads to a tendency for input interest rates to increase, including interest rates on the international market; the risk of unpredictable exchange rate increases, and inflation also increases.

"We assess that the pressure to mobilize long-term capital will increase, leading to competition in mobilization interest rates," said Mr. Nguyen Canh Anh.

In fact, interest rates in the international market also increased, forcing banks to suspend plans to raise capital in the international market.

According to Mr. Pham Nhu Anh, General Director of MB Bank, this year, the bank plans to issue about 100-300 million USD of green bonds to the international market. However, USD interest rates are higher than VND interest rates, so MB must choose the right time.

“MB does not lack capital, domestic capital is cheap so we are taking advantage of domestic resources. At the right time, at the right cost, we will issue green bonds,” said Mr. Anh.

However, recently, commercial banks have tried to hold down deposit and lending interest rates under the direction of the Prime Minister and the State Bank of Vietnam to support businesses and the economy.

Mr. Jens Lotter, General Director of Techcombank, commented that the competitive pressure among commercial banks is becoming increasingly fierce. The State Bank of Vietnam has called on commercial banks to reduce lending interest rates, so the NIM level - an indicator of the profitability and growth of banks - will tend to decrease.

“Techcombank will have to follow the general interest rate level and cannot unilaterally raise deposit interest rates higher than the market. Not only will we reduce lending rates, we will also reduce deposit interest rates to contribute to creating better momentum for economic growth,” said the Techcombank CEO.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Vinh, General Director of VPBank, with pressure on deposit and lending interest rates while trying to share difficulties with customers, the bank still builds a plan to protect NIM to continue to increase this year.

Since the February 25 meeting between the State Bank of Vietnam and commercial banks on interest rates, 29 domestic commercial banks have reduced their deposit interest rates by 0.1-1.05% per year.

However, the interest rate reduction momentum slowed down in April when only 9 banks reduced interest rates, including VPBank, MB, Eximbank, Nam A Bank, OCB, VCBNeo, GPBank, Techcombank and Viet A Bank.

Notably, banks have increased savings interest rates for some terms, especially short terms, including GPBank, Agribank, MB and Eximbank. OCB and Bac A Bank alone increased interest rates for terms from 1-36 months in April.

ONLINE DEPOSITS INTEREST RATES AT BANKS ON APRIL 29, 2025 (%/YEAR)
BANK	1 MONTH	3 MONTHS	6 MONTHS	9 MONTHS	12 MONTHS	18 MONTHS
AGRIBANK	2.4	3	3.7	3.7	4.8	4.8
BIDV	2	2.3	3.3	3.3	4.7	4.7
VIETINBANK	2	2.3	3.3	3.3	4.7	4.7
VIETCOMBANK	1.6	1.9	2.9	2.9	4.6	4.6
ABBANK	3.2	3.9	5.4	5.5	5.7	5.5
ACB	3.1	3.5	4.2	4.3	4.9	5.9
BAC A BANK	3.7	4	5.15	5.25	5.6	5.9
BAOVIETBANK	3.5	4.35	5.45	5.5	5.8	5.9
BVBANK	3.95	4.15	5.15	5.3	5.6	5.9
EXIMBANK	4	4.1	5.1	5.2	5.3	5.7
GPBANK	3.75	3.85	5.65	5.75	5.95	5.95
HDBANK	3.85	3.95	5.3	4.7	5.6	6.1
KIENLONGBANK	3.7	3.7	5.1	5.2	5.5	5.45
LPBANK	3.6	3.9	5.1	5.1	5.4	5.6
MB	3.9	4.2	4.6	4.6	5	5
MBV	4.1	4.4	5.5	5.6	5.8	5.9
MSB	3.9	3.9	5	5	5.6	5.6
NAM A BANK	3.8	4	4.9	5.2	5.5	5.6
NCB	4	4.2	5.35	5.45	5.6	5.6
OCB	3.9	4.1	5	5	5.1	5.2
PGBANK	3.4	3.8	5	4.9	5.4	5.8
PVCOMBANK	3.3	3.6	4.5	4.7	5.1	5.8
SACOMBANK	3.3	3.6	4.9	4.9	5.4	5.6
SAIGONBANK	3.3	3.6	4.8	4.9	5.6	5.8
SCB	1.6	1.9	2.9	2.9	3.7	3.9
SEABANK	2.95	3.45	3.95	4.15	4.7	5.45
SHB	3.5	3.8	4.9	5	5.3	5.5
TECHCOMBANK	3.15	3.45	4.45	4.45	4.65	4.65
TPBANK	3.5	3.8	4.8	4.9	5.2	5.5
VCBNEO	4.15	4.35	5.4	5.45	5.5	5.55
VIB	3.7	3.8	4.7	4.7	4.9	5.2
VIET A BANK	3.7	4	5.1	5.3	5.6	5.8
VIETBANK	4.1	4.4	5.4	5.4	5.8	5.9
VIKKI BANK	4.15	4.35	5.65	5.95	6	6
VPBANK	3.7	3.9	4.8	4.8	5.3	5.3