Bank profits generally upbeat

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State-owned Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) posted 20 per cent jump on-year in pretax profits which surpassed VND6.06 trillion ($283 million).

The earnings-per-share stood at VND1,700 while the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) exceeded 9 per cent.

The bank’s total assets saw 18 per cent hike on year to more than VND655 trillion ($30.6 billion) while outstanding loans leaped 19 per cent on-year, exceeding VND461 trillion ($21.5 billion). Its bad debts were kept at 1.8 per cent.

Last year, the bank’s deposit volumes also reported fair growth, sufficiently meeting its capital demands while ensuring safe bank operation.

According to chairman Nguyen Van Thang at state giant VietinBank, last year the bank raked in profit of about VND7.3 trillion ($341 million).

By end of last year, VietinBank’s total assets surpassed VND660 trillion ($30.8 billion) million, its credit expanded 18.4 per cent on-year and bad debts were kept at just 1.33 per cent.

With this performance, VietinBank continues to be among leaders players in the banking system. In respect to banks of medium size, 2014 proved a successful year for TPBank thanks strong restructuring efforts.

Accordingly, at the end of 2014 fiscal year the bank’s post-tax profits (after deducting risk provisioning) rose 22 per cent against the year’s projection to surpass VND536 billion ($25 million).

Its total assets exceeded VND51.5 trillion ($2.4 billion) and outstanding loans rose 50 per cent compared to early 2014.

Its bad debts were kept at 1 per cent only while customer count nearly doubled compared to in 2013.

According to general director Vo Tan Hoang Van at the Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB), the bank had fulfilled the targets its general shareholder meeting set in early 2014 and closely followed the goals set in the bank’s restructuring plan.

SCB was the first bank in place through restructuring three credit institutions- Ficombank, Tin Nghia Bank and SCB.

Though the business results for 2014 of Techcombank and LienVietPostBank remain forthcoming, a private source revealed their performance in 2014 was fairly upbeat.

In respect to bank sector prospect for 2015, economist Nguyen Tri Hieu assumed this year would be another challenging year for the sector as bad debts will be strongly categorised under regulations in State Bank’s Circular 02 on debt classification and risk provisioning.

Besides, Circular 36/2014/TT-NHNN which will come into force from next month aims to tighten lending requirements. Circular 36 regulates prudential ratios for the operations of credit institutions and foreign bank branches.

“Banks are likely to face multiple hardships this year and would find it hard to maintain profit levels as in 2014,” Hieu supposed.