Banking & Finance

Moody’s has upgraded TPBank’s credit rating to “Ba3”, based on assessing five key criteria: liquidity, profitability, bad debt ratio, equity, and tangible asset financing. Four of the five are at a high level at TPBank. With good profitability and risk management, TPBank was also placed by Forbes in the Top 50 best-listed companies in 2022 and is among the top seven listed banks in Vietnam.

With support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge (QVIC) 2022 contest was held by Qualcomm to promote innovation in the local startup ecosystem by supporting tech companies with potential in key sectors. The top 3 startups were announced on September 14, which will receive total prizes of $200,000.

According to the ACB Securities Company (ACBS), the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) sold some $21 billion of foreign exchange reserves in the first eight months of this year, or 19 per cent of the total. Reserves now stand at $89 billion, or about 12 weeks’ worth of imports, which is still within a safe margin. ACBS expects it will be difficult for the SBV to maintain low interbank interest rates in the near future, because the US Fed is likely to introduce three more rate hikes from now to the end of the year, putting downwards pressure on the VND/USD exchange rate.

In the week from September 5-9, the interbank interest rate spiked to 7.5 per cent per annum at one point, the highest level since 2012, but then fell to 4.29 per cent thanks to regulating activities by the State Bank of Vietnam, helping to gradually stabilize system liquidity.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Asia Bond Monitor report released on September 14 shows that the local currency bond market rose 8.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter and reached $99.5 billion. It grew 31.6 per cent year-on-year in the first eight months.

Figures from 26 of Vietnam’s 27 listed banks reveal plans to grow after-tax profits by up to 33 per cent in 2022. However, analysts believe banks will have to manage plans smartly given that net income margins (NIM) are becoming smaller.