Outstanding loans rise 17.5 pct in Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese banks’ total outstanding loans rose 17.53 percent in the six months ending June compared with a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement on its website Tuesday.

Credit in the banking system grew 17 percent during the period compared with the end of last year, the State Bank of Vietnam said. Total deposits gained 7.64 percent from a year earlier and rose 16.2 percent from the end of 2008, according to the statement.

State-owned commercial banks’ lending rates in Vietnamese dong ranged from 8.5 percent to 10.5 percent, while the borrowing costs of joint-stock commercial banks were between 10 percent and 10.5 percent, according to the statement. Interest rates on loans subsidized by the government were between 4.5 percent and 6 percent.

Interest rates of loans in US dollars ranged from 4 percent to 6 percent. The cost of credit card and consumer borrowings were between 12 percent and 16.5 percent, said the statement.

As of July 2, banks had lent VND372.3 trillion (US$21 billion) to businesses as part of the government’s loan-subsidy program, the central bank had said on its website late last week.

Banking figures

Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint-Stock Bank, the third-largest company traded on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, had outstanding loans of VND47.6 trillion and total assets of around VND83 trillion by the end of June, it said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. The lender did not mention comparable figures for the previous year.

Deposits at Sacombank, as the lender is known, reached VND70 trillion in the same period, and its bad debt ratio was 0.71 percent.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based bank reported pretax profits of VND905 billion ($51 million) for the first six months of the year.

Meanwhile, DongA Commercial Bank’s total outstanding loans reached VND27.4 trillion, up 23 percent from the same period last year, the lender said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday.

Total deposits at the HCMC-based lender were VND31.7 trillion, a yearon-year increase of 26.2 percent, according to the statement.

Its pretax profit totaled VND385 billion ($21.6 million) in the first six months, down 4.7 percent from a year earlier. Pretax profit in the January-to-June period made up 51 percent of the annual forecast, the statement said.

The bank had reported pretax profits of VND404 billion in the first six months last year.

An Binh Bank, an unlisted HCMCbased lender known as ABBank, said Tuesday credit grew to more than VND8.6 trillion ($483 million) in the first six months, 32 percent higher than six months ago.

Total deposits at the lender reached over VND11.6 trillion ($652 million), a 60 percent increase compared to December 31, 2008.

The bank reported first half pretax profits of more than VND172 billion ($9.6 million), 6 percent higher than its target.

With a 15 percent stake owned by Malaysia’s top lender Maybank, ABBank has forecast its pretax profits to rise to around VND400 billion ($22.4 million) in 2009.

The bank had reported a slump in gross profit last year to just VND70.2 billion ($3.9 million), well below the forecasted VND465 billion ($26 million), due to high operating costs and losses from trading foreign currencies and securities.

The lender plans to expand its network to nearly 100 branches across the country next year.

VietNamNet/TN