Local banks hike deposit rates
Local banks hike deposit rates
Roughly half the commercial banks in Vietnam, mainly small and medium ones, are offering a deposit rate of over 8% per year, according to data from the country’s banks.
Saigon-Hanoi Bank (SHB) has recently applied a deposit rate of 8.2% per year for the nine-month term instead of the previous rates of 6.9%-7%. With the upward adjustment, SHB is one of the banks offering the highest deposit rates for the term on the market, VietnamPlus news site reported.
SHB general director Nguyen Van Le said that commercial banks on the local market are enhancing capital mobilization, especially for long-term deposits, to meet the high demand of enterprises for capital for their operations for the rest of the year.
At Nam A Bank, deposits made online for the term of 36 months enjoy a rate of 8.7% per year, the highest rate on the market, while the deposit rate for savings for the 36-month term at the bank’s branches is only 7.9% per year.
Tien Phong Bank, or TPBank, and Vietnam International Bank (VIB) have jumped on the bandwagon, having announced an interest rate of up to 8.6% per year for deposits of VND100 billion and VND500 billion, respectively.
Meanwhile, a rate of 8.6% per year is being applied to all deposits of 24 months or longer at Viet Capital Bank.
Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank) has adjusted upward the deposit rate for some terms by 0.4% per year against the rates in early June. The bank’s deposit rates for savings for six to nine months are now 7%-7.1%, while the deposit rate for 12 months is 7.25% per year, up 0.3%.
Also, Vietnam Thuong Tin Bank has hiked its deposit rate to 8.3% per year from 8% for the term of 36 months, whereas the deposit rate for the 15-month term has been raised to 7.6%-7.8% per year by Asia Commercial Bank.
Meanwhile, at Vietnam's four largest banks---VietcomBank, VietinBank, BIDV and Agribank---the highest deposit rates range from 6.8% to 7% per year, posting the lowest rates in the banking system.
The rate hike resulted from the central bank’s requirements that lenders use only 40% of their short-term capital for long- and medium-term loans.
Nguyen Duc Do, vice rector of the Institute of Economics and Finance, said that deposit rates are relatively stable but are on an upward trend due to the central bank’s requirement of cutting the ratio of short-term capital used for long-term loans.
As such, commercial banks have been pushing up their capital mobilization for long-term deposits with higher rates to attract depositors.
