A transaction office of Vietcombank (Photo: Vietcombank)Hanoi (VNA)- The Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank)’s pre-tax profit hit a recordhigh of 8.2 trillion VND (361.76 million USD) in 2016, up 23.4 per cent against2015.
Nghiem Xuan Thanh, the bank’s chairman, shared the information last week at ameeting held to review the bank’s performance in 2016.
Vietnam’s largest bank by market capitalisation is also targeting a pre-profitfigure of 9.2 trillion VND in 2017, 12 percent higher than last year.
Vietcombank also expects its total assets to rise by 11 percent in 2017, whileit has forecast that its credit growth and capital mobilisation will be 18 percentand 15 percent, respectively. The bank aims to keep its non-performing loans(NPLs) under 1.5 percent.
At the meeting, Le Minh Hung, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) toldVietcombank to focus on settling NPLs through mortgaged assets.
Hung said Vietcombankmade significant achievements last year in settling bad debts, which hasbrought its bad debt ratio down to 1.45 percent, but these settlements weremainly through provisions, which reduced the bank’s profits. Last year,Vietcombank spent around 8.2 trillion VND for provisions, equal to 121 percentof its total NPLs.
The Governor also instructed the bank to prioritise the completion of itsrestructuring project and determine its position in the region in the next fiveto 10 years.
The central bank will also have to take part in the restructuring of otherailing banks, but the Government would issue detailed policies to avoid beingaffected because of it, Hung said.
Vietcombank must also implement administrative procedures more effectively sothat it is easier in 2017 for businesses to take its loans, the Governor said.-VNA
VNA
