More banks increase deposit interest rates

Specifically, An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank) increased its deposit interest rate this morning, announcing a change in interest rate. This is the third increase since the beginning of May.

However, through 3 adjustments, ABBank only focused on increasing interest rates for the 6-month term. The increase each time was 0.1%/year on May 15, 16 and 23.

Accordingly, the latest 6-month online deposit interest rate is 4.7%/year. This is also the highest savings interest rate announced by this bank.

Online deposit interest rates for the remaining terms remain the same, 1-2 months is 2.9%/year, 3-5 months is 3%/year, and 7-60 months is listed at a single interest rate of 4.1%/year.

ABBank is also the only bank adjusting deposit interest rates this morning.
Previously, yesterday, only MB Bank adjusted interest rates for the 12-month term.

Before ABBank, VIB Bank also increased deposit interest rates 3 times on May 4, May 8 and May 21.

According to statistics from the beginning of May 2024, a series of banks have increased deposit interest rates, including: ACB, VIB, GPBank, NCB, BVBank, Sacombank, CB, Bac A Bank, Techcombank, TPBank, PGBank, SeABank, Viet A Bank, ABBank, VPBank, HDBank, and MB.

Of which, VIB and ABBank are the first banks to have increased interest rates three times since the beginning of the month. CB, SeABank, and ABBank are the banks that have increased interest rates twice.

On the contrary, VietBank is the bank that adjusted the mobilization interest rate down for all terms, while MB reduced the mobilization interest rate for 12-month term, VIB reduced the mobilization interest rate for 24 and 36-month terms. Both of these banks reduced the interest rate by 0.1 percentage point, lower than the mobilization interest rate increase of this bank.

Outstanding credit growth returns

After negative growth in the first two months of 2024, bank credit grew positively again in March, but growth in the first three months of the year slowed significantly compared to the same period last year. According to data from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), by the end of March 2024, credit only increased by 1.34%, while in the same period last year, the increase was nearly 2.6%. Previously, credit in the economy in the first two months of the year decreased by 0.72% compared to the end of 2023 (of which January decreased by 0.6%, February decreased by 0.05%).

BIDV continues to be the champion in customer lending, with a scale of more than VND 1.79 million billion as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 0.9% compared to the end of last year. VietinBank ranked second in lending, with a balance of VND 1.51 million billion as of the end of the first quarter, an increase of 2.8% compared to the beginning of 2024. Vietcombank ranked third with an outstanding loan balance of nearly VND 1.27 million billion as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, but a decrease of 0.3% compared to the beginning of the year.

Next is MB with outstanding loans reaching VND615,000 billion, up 0.7% in the first quarter of this year. At the end of the first quarter, VPBank's consolidated credit increased by 2.1% compared to the beginning of the year, higher than the industry average, reaching nearly VND613,000 billion. Similarly, Techcombank's credit growth in the first quarter reached 6.4% compared to the beginning of the year, reaching VND563,900 billion.

In addition, ACB's outstanding credit balance reached VND506,000 billion, up 3.8% compared to the beginning of this year; HDBank reached 6.2%, raising the total outstanding debt scale to VND375,385 billion...

In 2024, the State Bank of Vietnam aims for credit growth of 14-15%, with an estimated VND2 trillion being injected into the economy. With the conditions to boost lending instead of limiting room as in previous years, banks are gradually stimulating capital demand through preferential interest rate programs for both corporate and individual customers.

Specifically, ACB's customer loan growth target in 2024 is 14%, reaching VND555,866 billion. Mr. Tu Tien Phat, General Director of ACB, said that by the end of the first quarter of 2024, the Bank's credit was nearly double the industry's credit growth and grew more positively than in previous months. With this growth rate, ACB is confident in completing the credit growth target set by the State Bank this year.

In 2024, VPBank aims for 25% credit growth, equivalent to VND752,104 billion in outstanding credit (the above credit growth rate also depends on the SBV's limit). Meanwhile, according to the 2024 plan, Techcombank's total credit will increase by 16.2%, to VND616,061 billion or higher, according to the SBV's credit level. Meanwhile, MB will have higher credit growth than the assigned 16%.

In general, banks all set high credit growth targets in 2024, including the group of state-owned commercial banks. Specifically, BIDV set a target of credit growth according to the limit assigned by the State Bank, expected at 14.04%, equivalent to nearly 2 million billion VND. VietinBank's credit growth limit approved by the State Bank this year is 14% and the Bank can achieve this figure.

Vietcombank has been assigned a credit growth limit of nearly 16% this year. If this limit is fully used, the bank's credit balance will reach VND1.48 quadrillion by the end of 2024.

In 2024, Sacombank's total assets are expected to reach VND 724,100 billion, an increase of 10%, of which outstanding credit will reach VND 535,800 billion, an increase of 11% and will be adjusted in accordance with the allocation limit... Sacombank's customer loans by the end of the first quarter of 2024 increased by 3.7%, to VND 500,408 billion.

For HDBank, the total outstanding debt is expected to exceed VND438,000 billion by the end of 2024, in line with the credit growth target assigned by the State Bank and control the bad debt ratio below 2%. At Saigonbank, as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, total assets increased slightly by 1% compared to the beginning of the year, to VND31,863 billion; customer loans decreased by 1%. Saigonbank targets credit growth of nearly 13% this year.

Banks expect credit to gradually improve in the coming quarters and reach the industry target of 14-15% this year as lending interest rates remain low. However, according to Associate Professor Nguyen Huu Huan (University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City), it is highly likely that credit growth this year will not reach 15%, but only 10-11%, due to the slow economic recovery. At the same time, capital demand from corporate customers is not high, because market purchasing power is still weak, and businesses are not interested in using loans to expand production and business.

KHANH LINH (T/h)