Banks reduce over 536 million USD worth of interest rates for pandemic-hit borrowers

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Sixteen banks in Vietnam reduced a total of 12.23trillion VND (536.2 million USD) in interest rates for borrowers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic from July 15 to September30, equivalent to 59.36 percent of their commitments, according to the StateBank of Vietnam.

Accordingly, the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Developmentof Vietnam (Agribank) cut the largest amount, of 4.88 trillion VND. Loansworth 1.27 quadrillion VND enjoyed interest rate reductions, benefiting over3.18 million customers.

It was followed by the Joint Stock Commercial Bank forForeign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and the Joint Stock Commercial Bank forInvestment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), with 1.97 trillion VND and 1.9trillion VND cut down, respectively.

Earlier in early July, following the Government’s Resolution63/NQ-CP and directions of the SBV, through the Vietnam Banks’ Association, 16commercial banks agreed to cut the lending rates for enterprises hard hit by theCOVID-19 pandemic from July 15 until the end of this year, with the totalamount of reduced interest of 20.6 trillion VND.

Four State-owned commercial banks committed to provide asupport package worth 4 trillion VND to reduce interest rates and 100 percentof service fees for customers in localities imposing social distancing under thePrime Minister’s Directive 16./.

VNA