Banks looked gloomy amidst COVID-19

Financial reports released by some banks in the first quarter have reflected the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business activities, with declining profits and rocketing bad debts.
Banks looked gloomy amidst COVID-19 ảnh 1Transactions at Vietcombank (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) –
Financial reports released bysome banks in the first quarter have reflected the adverse impacts of theCOVID-19 pandemic on their business activities, with declining profits and rocketing baddebts.

The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade ofVietnam (Vietcombank) reported that its pre-tax profit shrank 11.14 percentyear-on-year to only 5.22 trillion VND (223 million USD).

As of March 31, overdue debts at the bank exceeded11.25 trillion VND, up nearly 2.9 trillion VND.

Vietcombank’s total revenue in the first three monthsincreased only 4 percent as compared to the same period last year to over12.2 trillion VND. Meanwhile, operational costs were up 12 percent to 4.91trillion VND and risk prevention spending also expanded 43 percent to 2.15trillion VND.
As one of the banks pioneering in cutting interestrates and taking support measures towards businesses struggling against thepandemic, Vietcombank is expected to meet more difficulties in the nextquarters.

The Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank(Sacombank) failed to join the trillion club as its pre-tax profit declined 7percent to only 988 billion VND. Its net profit stood at 785 billion VND.

In the quarter, the bank earned only 71 billion VNDfrom other activities, down 76.6 percent year-on-year, mainly coming from baddebt settlement.

Its total revenue reached only 3.88 trillion VND, aslight rise of 9.72 percent, as compared with operational costs at 2.47 trillionVND, up 20.84 percent year-on-year.

As of March 31, its bad debts reached 6.04 trillionVND, up 313 billion VND from the beginning of the year.

A similar situation was also seen in KienlongCommercial Joint Stock Bank (Kienlongbank) whose post-tax profit dropped 23.25percent to 45.5 billion VND.

The decline was mainly due to the sharp rise in riskprevention spending that hit 68.8 billion VND, up nearly 3.7 percent from thecorresponding time last year.

SSI Securities Corporation forecast that the gloomypicture will continue in the second quarter when profits from interests, feesand bad debt collection are expected to drop as banks offer preferentialpackages and cut transaction costs./.
VNA

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