Banking & Finance

The total assets of commercial banks under state ownership accounted for 44% of the total in the banking sector, followed by joint stock commercial banks with 41%, Vietnam Finance reported.

The stock market has laid a solid foundation for the success of leading corporations, supported the privatization process of state-owned enterprises and become a balanced and efficient capital market alongside the banking system.

The government intends to push forward with the privatization scheme of state-owned enterprises in 2019, offering more opportunities for investors in the stock market.

E-wallets are the relative minnow but they could have the biggest impact on the government`s cashless agenda.

The government’s strong push for privatization and divestment in 2019 would present new opportunities for Vietnam’s stock market.

The increase in Vietcombank`s charter capital was funded by issuing shares to Japan’s Mizuho Bank and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.

Quality of lending to real estate sector could be rigorously monitored from 2019.

The exchange rate (FX) rate and short-term rates stop to go up while net buying foreign investment flow was reported in the last two months.

As of the fourth quarter of 2018, the VN-Index fell from 1,021 points to 892, equivalent to a decrease of 12.6%.

Cross-border lending serves as an effective alternative source to supplement banks’ mid- and long-term funding.

Experts suggested the government currently can increase the foreign ownership limit at banks by 5 percentage points to 35 percent. Then, the rate will be continuously adjusted up to 51 percent in 2021-2025.

Experts said there are many favorable conditions for e-payment to make a leap in the country: the retail market and e-commerce are thriving, while bank cards and smartphones are more widespread.

The Vietnamese economy is expected to expand 6.7% in 2019, which is a "robust" rate, says UOB.

Despite being one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the region, online transactions in Vietnam remains feeble.

The analysts expect credit growth in 2019 to remain at around 14% as the SBV maintains its control over credit growth in the system.

The high growth would come from stable economic growth and cheap valuation of Vn-Index.

As part of the process, the bank would reduce the state ownership to 65%.

The National Assembly set target for public debt at 61.3% of the GDP by the end of 2019, the governmental portal reported.

The downtrend of the bad debt ratio stemmed from stricter asset classification at banks and the warm-up of the local real estate market thanks to faster economic growth which hit a decade high of 7.08% in 2018.

During 2018, the supply of foreign currency in Vietnam remained profuse, facilitating the central bank`s forex purchases.