A branch of SHB Bank. Many banks are cutting their annual profit targets due to the impacts of COVID-19 (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Many banks in Vietnam havereduced their profit target for 2020, and plan to support companiesseverely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Besides, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued instructionson 31 March to banks to cut costs and bonus payments and not pay dividends incash.
Nam A Bank has reviewed its 2019 performance and 2020plans, and said it now targets pre-tax profit of only 800 billion VND (34 million USD) in 2020,13.5 percent down from last year.
But it plans to keep some other targets unchanged. Thebank said it would seek to achieve the credit target it set based on theState Bank of Vietnam’s credit growth quota.
It is set to lower lending interest rates by 2 percentagepoints, with businesses in agriculture, hospitality and import-exportbenefiting the most from this.
It has also unveiled a 1 trillion VND (42.5 million USD) loan package forindividual customers at an interest rate of 9.9 percent.
Hoang Viet Cuong, deputy general director of the lender, saidit is meant to enable borrowers to revive production and get their lives backto normalcy.
Bad debts this year would not exceed 3 percent, the bank said.
Sai Gon – Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB)also plans to cut its 2020 profit target, adding that it would be by at least 1trillion VND.
It also plans to reduce operation costs. Its executives havevolunteered a 50 percent wage cut until the pandemic ends, while departmentheads are amenable to 10-30 percent cuts.
The bank has earmarked 25 trillion VND for loans with manypreferential offers including a 2 percentage point interest rate cut. Italso plans to restructure customers’ loans.
It is expected that more banks will announce changes tostrategies and interest rate cuts to support clients in the coming days.
A report from the National Statistics Office said the creditgrowth this year has been only 0.68 percent, 1.22 percentage points downyear-on-year.
Deposit growth has fallen to 0.51 percent from 1.72 percent,it added./.
VNA
