Customers borrow loans at a commecial bank (Source: hanoimoi.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) – Many commercial banks have asked the
State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to expand the credit growth limit as they have
almost used up the assigned quota for the whole year.
The
central bank assigns an annual credit growth quota for each bank to control
lending and thus ensure money supply and inflation control as targeted by the
Government.
Chairman of Vietcombank Nghiem Xuan Thanh said the central bank had set the
bank’s quota at 16 percent for the whole year, but in the first half of the
year it had already reached 13 percent growth.
Vietcombank has therefore requested a higher credit growth cap to meet rising
capital demands, especially at the end of the year during peak business and
spending seasons.
The
Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) has also used up almost
all its entire credit growth quota of 16 percent assigned for 2017. Its
outstanding loans reached nearly 75.7 trillion VND in H1, up by 15.7 percent.
VIB’s
general director Han Ngoc Vu said the bank had asked SBV to expand the credit
growth limit to provide more scope for lending at the end of the year.
HDBank’s
credit growth by the end of June also reached 18 percent, compared with 20 percent
assigned by the central bank. The bank’s lending growth in H1 was mainly from
short-term loans worth 50 trillion VND, accounting for 51.6 percent of the
bank’s total outstanding loans.
Outstanding
loans of the Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank) in H1 also
grew by 12 percent to 162 trillion VND. VPBank has only 4 percent left from the
assigned credit growth limit of 16 percent to develop lending in the remaining
six months of 2017.
General Director
of ACB Do Minh Toan also said that in H1 2017, his bank used over half of the
credit growth limit of 16 percent and is waiting for SBV approval for an
expansion. ACB needs more credit growth room as it has been promoting a retail
strategy, which focuses on credit for individual customers and small- and
medium-sized enterprises, Toan said.
According to SBV data, the credit of the entire banking system grew 9.06 percent
in the first half of 2017, the highest level in the past six years.
At a
recent meeting, the Prime Minister asked SBV to increase the credit growth
target to 20 percent from the current 18 percent cap, as planned previously, to
support the country’s economic growth.
Banking
expert Bui Quang Tin said the current credit growth rate is in line with the
SBV’s direction. He forecast that in the remaining months of 2017, SBV will
still control lending growth, but will also make flexible adjustments to
achieve the targets set by the National Assembly and the Government.-VNA