The Government issued Decree on organizational structure and operations of the commercial banks which are licensed by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). The Decree will take effect on September 15, 2009.The Decree governs such credit institutions as state-owned commercial banks (SOCBs), joint-stock commercial banks (JSCBs), joint-venture banks (JVBs), wholly-owned foreign banks (WOFBs), and those institutions and individuals which are related to organizational structure and operations of commercial banks. The Decree stipulates that the SBV is the sole state authorities to grant licenses to the eligible parties or to refuse granting licenses to those institutions and individuals in case they fail to meet the requirements as stipulated in the applicable regulations.
In the first 6 months this year, monetary targets such as total payments and access to credit have increased substantially due to the Government’s stimulus policies. The figures meet the economy’s capital demands and have made an important contribution to supporting economic growth and preventing any major falls. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has controlled monetary policy, which has allowed payments to increase by 25 percent and loans to rise by 25-27 percent. Meanwhile the SBV has closely watched the development of the global financial meltdown and global economic crisis as well as domestic economic changes to propose flexible solutions for combating inflation during the 2009-2010 period.
The nation’s commercial banks are expecting smooth sailing through the remainder of the year after managing solid first-half profits in the face of the global economic downturn. With its shares recently listed on the HCM City Stock Exchange, Vietcombank announced superb business results for the first six months of 2009, including profits of VND2.45 trillion (US$136.1 million) – 74 per cent of the total target for the year. Maritime Bank has also reported solid first-half earnings, including profits of VND473 billion. Sacombank, managed profits of VND900 billion during the six-month period. Eximbank also said it was well on its way to surpassing the half-way mark in its goal for the year of VND1.5 trillion in profits. Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank said the bank would see profits of over VND250 billion in the first six months, equivalent to 74.4 per cent of the target for the entire year. And Newcomers : LienViet Bank and TienPhong Bank were also reporting good business results in the first six months. LienViet Bank said that the bank expected to post VND340 billion in profits in the first half. TienPhong Bank, meanwhile, estimated profits of VND70-73 billion, 60 per cent of which would be generated by fees from traditional banking services and the rest from foreign exchange and money market activities. Most commercial banks showed that interest from loans accounted for roughly 60 per cent on average of their total profits in the first half of the year. According to the State Bank of Viet Nam, total outstanding loans increased 17 per cent year-on-year during the period.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV appoint the Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) as the serving bank for the USD 60 million loan of the Financial Sector Modernization and Information Management System Project (FSMIMS) funded by the World Bank (WB) and Grant No. TF 093085-VN from Japan Policy and Human Resources Development (PHRD) Fund.
The State Bank of Vietnam permit the Standard Chartered (Vietnam) Limited to open an operations center in Hanoi and a branch in Ho Chi Minh City.
