Banking & Finance

The Fintech Challenge Vietnam has been useful input into developing an enabling legal framework for the fintech ecosystem development in Vietnam.

Vietnamese law does not allow multilateral international financial institutions such as IFC to use red book, or land use rights certificate, for collateral loans.

As of present, just 40% of citizens in Vietnam have bank accounts. However, 90% of daily transactions are conducted in cash, while the rate goes up to 99% for transaction worth under VND100,000 (US$4.34).

The cooperation framework would support mobilizing capital from the private sector and developing financial markets for infrastructure development, in turn helping Vietnam realize its priorities in the field in near future, said a Vietnamese vice finance minister.

The slow growth comes mainly from state-owned banks, which have become more stringent on their loan disbursements.

Though the current legal regulations allow foreign investors to fully own a local firm, the investors still face hindrances to pour funds into some conditional business lines.

This segment was also the only one in the brokerage sector that saw gross profit increase compared to the third quarter of last year.

Vietnamese banks belong to a handful of examples that combine well two factors of high growth of profit and long-term stability.

The Ministry of Finance considers such publication an important practice promoting transparency and publicity of Vietnam’s state budget.

This time, Vietnam’s stock market responded differently compared to the previous two rate cuts with minimal impacts.

Vietnam's economic expansion has been driven by strong FDI, mostly into the manufacturing sector, and steady export growth.

Foreign investors’ trading on exchanges and net injecting/withdrawing value from the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has a high correlation with a usual lag of one month. Hence, although the trend of money withdrawal by foreign investors has not shown any sign of ending, it is expected there will be less selling pressure in October.

Starting October 15, the Ministry of Finance is scheduled to disclose the disbursement data on a 15-day basis at http://mof.gov.vn.

While the expansion of asset yields becomes more limited as the transition towards retail lending slows down and competition intensifies, the control of funding costs serves as a driver of interest income growth.

Over the last five years, the number of such transactions has increased five-fold from 56 million transactions in 2015 to 271 million by 2019 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.3%.

There is real value to be found in the mid- to small-cap selections in the benchmark VN- Index, many of which carry amazing growth stories, said Dragon Capital’s executive.

The stability of the VND has contributed to decreasing demand for the dollar as people prefer the national currency due to the large spread between interest rates on VND and the dollar.

Devaluing the dong must take into account trade turnover, foreign debt, current account, so as to ensure the highest national interest and stability of the market, according to the State Bank of Vietnam.

Challenges of the Vietnamese banking sector include issues of asset quality, weak capitalization and regulatory constraints that inhibit further investment in the sector. In addition, Vietnamese banks have higher overheads and provision more for non-performing loans.

The current growth rate is less than two thirds of the growth target of 14% set for 2019.