Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - To encouragecustomers to deposit money online amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many banks haveraised interest rates for online savings by up to 1.4 percent higher thanover-the-counter deposits.
Short-term interest rates (below six months)are prevalent at 4.3-4.75 percent per year at most banks and do not differ muchfrom over-the-counter deposits due to the rate cap set by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
However, a few banks have listed lower ratesfor traditional deposits and offer higher online rates such as Techcombank (up0.45 percentage points), SeABank (up 0.4 percentage points), ACB (up 0.25percentage points) and BIDV (up 0.2 percentage points).
The disparity is clearer for terms from sixmonths and above.
Among the Big Four, Vietinbank is offeringcustomers up to 0.3 percentage points per year higher for online savingscompared to over-the-counter deposits (depending on term of deposit).
BIDV made a similar move with an increase of0.2 percentage points for online savings.
Vietcombank and Agribank have yet to announceany changes in their interest rate policies.
Among commercial joint stock banks, SaigonBank (SCB) and Nam A Bank have launched the highestonline saving interest rates for six-month and 12-month terms, between 8.03 percentand 8.66 percent per year – 0.9-1.2 percentage points higher than traditionaldeposits.
Some banks have listed interest rates above 7percent per year for six-month terms including OCB, Viet A Bank,Vietbank, PVcomBank, Viet Capital Bank and Eximbank.
Many are offering interest rates from 6.2 to7 percent per year such as SeAbank (6.2 percent), ACB and Maritime Bank (6.7 percent),VIB and TPBank (6.8 percent) and Eximbank (7 percent).
For 6-month terms, Eximbank has the biggestdifference between online savings and over-the-counter savings of 1.4percentage points per year.
Disparity at other banks such as Techcombank,Viet Capital Bank, Sai Gon-Hanoi Bank,TPBank, SeABank and Maritime Bank is between 0.4 and 1.1 percentage points forterms of six months and 12 months.
For 12-month terms, only a few banks havelisted interest rates below 7 percent per year such as Techcombank (6.5 percent)and Vietcombank (6.6 percent), while most banks have kept interest ratesbetween 7 percent to 7.8 percent.
Interest rates for 18-month terms are similaror slightly higher than 12-month terms. Meanwhile, the majority of banks havemaintained or slashed interest rates for longer terms (24 months and 36months)./.