Vietnam’s banking sector towards sustainable growth

Recent assessments of international organizations have shown a bright picture about performance of the banking sector, of which, leading credit organizations such as Vietinbank, Techcombank, Vietcombank and BIDV have resumed their momentum and shown good health.
The Asian Banker has recently commented that performance of the Vietnam banking sector has continuously improved, thanks to the Government’s reform efforts as well as positive movements of the economy. The assessment is based on an analysis of operation and ranking of 16 Vietnamese banks including state-owned banks and joint stock commercial ones.

Techcombank has resumed their momentum and shown good health in 2017.

According to the Asian Banker, Vietnam banking system has positive performance, reflected in Vietnam’s highest asset growth rate in the Asia Pacific region. In terms of profits, domestic banks have reached impressive net profit growth of 37.4 percent.
Especially, quite a number of recorded indicators show positive development trend. For example, deposit/credit growth rate booms, reaching as many as 1.5 times compared to the same period while credit growth is maintained at 18 percent. Though interest income still dominates, in the revenue structure of some banks, service fees have increased significantly, to approximately 20 percent. Also thanks to good mobilization and positive improvement in the operation of businesses, partners of banks, the liquidity of the system has improved very well.
The Asian Banker appreciates bad debt settlement efforts, with the sub-prime debt ratio at just 2.5 percent at the end of 2016, the lowest level in recent years. The report also praises the increased risk management awareness of banks, which is most clearly reflected in the compliance with new regulations of the State Bank as well as Basel II standards.
The Asian Banker has ranked 500 banks in the region with the total assets of $224 billion, and the net profit of $1.6 billion. Notably, in terms of Strength Rank (the strongest banks following asset balance sheet), the Top 3 leading banks are Vietcombank (No.48 out of 500 regional banks), Techcombank (No.101) and Vietinbank (No.124).
As such, Techcombank is the only joint stock commercial bank in the Top 3 banks having the highest profitability following the assessment of The Asian Banker. This achievement is thanks to the fact that the bank has implemented good risk management measures while having good asset quality.
In September, the prestigious credit rating agency S&P also rated Vietcombank and Techcombank as equally as Vietnam’s national rating, or “national credit rating ceiling”. This is the highest rating that a Vietnamese bank can achieve (until S&P upgrades its credit rating for Vietnam).
According to S&P’s assessment, Techcombank has “a balanced choice between profit increase and risk management”. In 2017, Techcombank completed its bad debt purchase from the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) and started applying risk management framework under Basel II international standard.
Assessing the move on bad debt purchase of banks, Pham The Anh, economic expert at the National University, said there are two noticeable points. First, the financial strength of banks allows them to have abundant resources to acquire bad debt. Besides, the asset quality of loans has improved a lot (which may come from changes in the operation of businesses, in the bank’s accompanying policy and positive movement of the economy).
Expert Can Van Luc believed banks that really do business professionally and gain high credit scores from world prestigious rating institutions will maintain sustainable development and good business results, taking advantage of opportunities when the economy integrates deeply into the region and the world.