Clients and members of staff at HDBank headquarters in HCM City. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Total assets of Vietnam’s banking systemreached more than 9.25 quadrillion VND (407.5 billion USD) by the end ofAugust, an increase of 8.79 percent over the beginning of this year, statisticsfrom the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) show.
Assets of seven State-owned banks rose 8.69 percent to nearly 4.2 quadrillionVND, accounting for 45.4 percent of the total number. State-owned banks wherethe State holds the majority stake include Agribank, Vietcombank, Vietinbank,Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), Vietnam ConstructionBank, GPBank and Ocean Bank.
Meanwhile, assets of joint-stock commercial banks stood at more than 3.72 VND quadrillion, up 8.75 percent.
Total assets of finance and financial leasing companies were a little more than134 trillion VND ending August, but this group witnessed the strongest assetgrowth of more than 17.2 percent.
Only Co-operative Bank of Vietnam saw its assets fall by 1.36 percent.
Ending August, total charter capital of the whole banking sector hit 505.3trillion VND, up 3.45 percent compared to the start of the year.
Finance and financial leasing firms, and joint-venture and foreign banks hadthe strongest capital expansion of 8.3 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.
Joint-stock commercial banks raised charter capital by 2.9 percent during theperiod, reaching more than 206.6 trillion VND, while the State-owned banks’capital increased by just 0.8 percent, valued at 147.7 trillion VND.
Equity capital of joint stock commercial banks (267.7 trillion VND) was alsohigher than that of State-owned banks (246.2 trillion VND).
Ending August, the average capital adequacy ratio(CAR) of the whole system was 12.37 percent, much higher than the 9 percentrate allowed by the central bank.
However, CAR of the State-owned bank group remained below 10 percent, standingat 9.69 percent, while the similar number of the joint-stock commercial bankswas 11.12 percent.
Joint-venture and foreign banks have the highest CAR of more than 32 percent,followed by finance and financial leasing companies of 18.3 percent.
CAR is expressed as a percentage of the bank’s capital to its risk-weightedassets and is one of the main metrics used to promote the stability andefficiency of financial systems.
However, bank experts warn that when BASEL II norms are applied, bank CAR maydecline by 2-3 percentage points due to an increase in the amount of theirrisky assets. BASEL II also requires banks to maintain CAR of at least 8 percent.
Following the SBV’s roadmap, about 12-15 Vietnamese banks must apply BASEL IIby 2020, but 10 banks, including three State-owned banks (Vietcombank,Vietinbank and BIDV), participated in anearlier pilot programme that started in September.
Moody’s Investors Service on October 31 upgraded its outlook for Vietnam’sbanking system to positive for the next 12-18 months from stable, reflectingthe country’s strong economic prospects and the positive outlook for most ratedbanks.-VNA
VNA
