Banking & Finance

According to Yuanta Securities Vietnam, the profits of listed banks in the second quarter of 2022 increased 36 per cent. It also believes that the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) will loosen credit space in August and recommends that investors focus on high-quality banks.

Figures from the General Statistics Office show that credit growth in 2022 as of June 20 stood at 8.51 per cent, much higher than the 5.47 per cent posted in the same period of 2021. Growth in banks’ capital mobilization, however, was only 3.97 per cent. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) expects credit growth to come in at 14 per cent for the year as a whole.

A number of credit institutions have recently provided large consumption loans to individual customers that are actually for real estate. According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), this is potentially risky if there are fluctuations in the real estate market. It is therefore expected to issue new regulations to tackle lending for real estate that is disguised as other lending.

According to the Viet Dragon Securities Company, more than $10 billion in foreign exchange reserves have been sold since the beginning of the year. At the same time, after just four trading sessions, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has net bought nearly VND70 trillion ($3.01 billion) from open market operations (OMO). As a result, the pressure on the USD/VND exchange rate eased significantly.

Figures from Kis Securities show that in the week from June 20-24, Vietnam attracted $356 million via exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It is forecast that capital will continue to flow through ETFs into Vietnam’s stock market in the future.

The digitization of banking products and services is now common in local banks. According to a survey by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), 95 per cent of banks have built a comprehensive digital transformation strategy, of which 39 per cent have approved the strategy or integrated it with plans for business development and information technology. Many banking operations have been 100 per cent digitized.