Banks pin hopes on non-interest income sources

Nguyen Dinh Tung, CEO of OCB, revealed that last year the bank’s non-interest business segment was not so encouraging, yet they expect to see an increase in income from this segment this year.

"Last year, the bank’s government bond trading business generated very little income, even catching losses at times, because of spiking interbank interest rates. Meanwhile, the bank remained cautious in corporate bond trading," said Tung, "As the government and banking sectors take measures to eliminate obstacles, we will be more proactive in the corporate bond market in the upcoming months."

Meanwhile, Hanoi-based VPBank has emerged as one of the top performers in terms of non-interest income source generation.

The net services income of the consolidated bank rose nearly 34 per cent on-year in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, with that of the parent bank showing a 44 per cent jump, driven by card-payment services and bancassurance. The bank carved out a spot in the top three performers regarding non-life insurance premiums during the same period.

Nguyen Duc Thach Diem, deputy chairperson and CEO of Sacombank, said, "The banking sector, like many other sectors, faces mounting economic hardships this year, so much so that the bank has taken initiatives to diversify its capital sources at home and abroad."

In addition, major efforts are being geared towards promoting digital products to the market. Of the bank’s 15 million customers, around half are digital ones and during the 2018-2022 period, the volume of transactions on its digital platform rose on average 43 per cent annually.

Meanwhile, CEO Tran Ngoc Tam at southern commercial lender Nam A Bank said, "We are gradually strengthening our digital transformation strategy while transitioning to a more diverse, multiservice business model to raise income from non-credit services."

Analysts cite a spike in interest rates in Q4 of last year as the cause of the increase in the cost of capital, thereby narrowing banks’ profit margins and affecting their profitability for at least the next three to six months. Boosting non-interest income is one way to help banks continue to maintain growth.

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