City banks' credit at 4-year high
City banks' credit at 4-year high
Credit growth in HCM City in the first nine months this year surged 13.26 per cent to VND1,400 trillion (US$62.5 billion), the highest level in four years.
At a meeting on Monday with National Assembly members, the director of the State Bank of Viet Nam's HCM City branch, To Duy Lam, attributed the rise to the lending interest rate reduction in recent months. Interest rates for short-term loans currently average 6.75-9 per cent per year and 8.7-9.9 per cent for medium- and long-term loans.
HCM City's preferential lending programmes for the city's firms and its local people also helped boost the city's credit growth, Lam said.
According to the SBV's HCM City branch, lending programmes to five prioritised sectors - agriculture, exports, part supply industries, small- and medium-d enterprises and hi-tech businesses - in the first nine months reached roughly VND770 trillion, up 10 per cent against the end of last year.
Lending through the city's programmes that helps connect banks with businesses also provided total loans of more than VND178 trillion to 19,156 customers.
The SBV representative said the central bank would keep interest rates low to boost economic growth.
HCM City's Party Committee Secretary, Dinh La Thang, urged the SBV's HCM City branch and the city-based credit institutions to examine the feasibility of credit packages for start-ups and small- and medium-d enterprises in accordance with the city's seven prioritised programmes.
The programmes include improved human resource quality, quality of economic growth and competitiveness; administrative reform; reduction of traffic congestion and accidents, flooding, and environmental pollution; and climate change adaptation and rise in sea levels. In the first nine months, the city's total capital mobilisation also rose 11.37 per cent against the end of last year to more than VND1,740 trillion.
As for bad debt, the city-based banks settled VND35 trillion, reducing the city's bad debt from 3.92 per cent at the end of last year to 3.8 per cent of total outstanding loans at the end of August.
At the meeting, bank representatives hailed the Viet Nam Asset Management Company for the way it has dealt with bad debts.
Do Minh Toan, general director of Asia Commercial Bank, said bad debt-related regulations were still not optimal and did not offer effective solutions since borrowers shun their responsibility.
Thang also called on banks to strengthen their co-ordination with the VAMC to better tackle the bad debt problem.
