Customers make transactions at a branch of VietinBank in Hanoi.(Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - Many banks have planned to set up more branches andtransaction offices in the early days of the new year to seize new businessopportunities.
After getting approval from the central bank in the second week of the NewYear, HDBank said it would open five branches in the northern and centralprovinces of Hung Yen, Thai Binh, Thai Nguyen, Vinh Phuc and Dak Nong.
The bank will also establish another 39 transaction offices in 26 cities andprovinces this year, raising its network to 282 branches and transactionoffices nationwide.
In the early days of 2018, MBBank has also been licensed to establish anadditional five branches and 12 transaction offices, bringing its network to 96branches and 188 transaction offices throughout the country.
Many other banks such as SCB, Bac A Bank and Ban Viet have also decided toenlarge their network of branches and transaction offices right at thebeginning of the year.
Experts said that banks want to enlarge their network as the banking sector isforecast to see a prosperous year in 2018.
According to a State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) survey released recently, businessperformance of commercial banks is forecast to continue its upward trend thisyear after making significant improvements last year.
According to the survey, many banks expect better results in Q1 2018, comparedwith Q4 2017. They also hope their business performance this entire year wouldfurther improve against last year.
Pre-tax profits of many banks are predicted to rise in 2018, compared with lastyear, helping the average growth rate of the entire banking system reach 19.33percent, much higher than the 13.4 percent forecast in a survey conducted atthe same time last year, according to the survey.
Many banks have so far also reportedly gained a high profit last year, helpedby strong credit growth and initial gains in the settlement of bad debts.
A recent report from the National Financial Supervisory Committee (NFSC) alsoestimated that pre-tax profits of the banking sector in 2017 rose by more than40 percent over the previous year, while after-tax profits surged by 44.5 percent.
Truong Van Phuoc, NFSC’s acting chairman, said this was thanks to the handlingof bad debts, hastened by the National Assembly’s Resolution 42/2014. Some 70trillion VND (3.08 billion USD) worth of non-performing loans were handled in2017, up 40 percent against 2016.-VNA
VNA
