VIB posts stable business in first half of 2020

VIB’s total asset value surpassed VND202 trillion ($8.8 billion) as of June 30, 2020

According to the financial report, in the first six months of this year, the total operating income of Vietnam International Bank (VIB) was VND4.815 trillion ($209.35 million), pre-tax profit exceeded projections by 52 per cent, reaching VND2.356 trillion ($102.43 million). Fee income was VND1.022 trillion ($44.43 million), accounting for 21 per cent of the total operating income.

Its operating expenses (OPEX) reached VND2.037 trillion ($88.57 million), and cost to income ratio (CIR) stabilised at 42 per cent. With the appropriate business operation strategies, VIB has managed to adapt to volatile markets flexibly and quickly recover as soon as socio-economic activities return to normal.

As of June 30, 2020, the bank’s total asset value surpassed VND202 trillion ($8.8 billion) and outstanding balance exceeded VND140 trillion ($6.1 billion), up 6 per cent on-year, of which retail loans increased by 8 per cent.

Its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was kept at 1.96 per cent and VIB has maintained capital adequacy ratio (CAR) ratio at 10 per cent compared to the minimum level of 8 per cent regulated by the State Bank. Meanwhile, the loan to deposit ratio stood at 74.6 per cent against the ceiling level 85 per cent and the ratio of short-term funds for medium and long-term loans was kept at 34.4 per cent compared to regulated ceiling of 40 per cent.

Pioneering in transition to cashless society

With a view to quickly meeting and adapting to the drastic changes in customer demand for cashless payment, VIB has increased investment and put a lot of effort into using big data, machine learning, and AI technology to digitise the entire credit card approval process and card issuance for customers.

Accordingly, VIB has become the first bank in Vietnam to successfully apply these technologies to appraise credit card application documents in a short time and completely online.

With this result, VIB also set a record time in credit card application experience in Vietnam: customers only need 5 minutes to fill in information and 15 to 30 minutes for approval to get credit limit of up to VND200 million ($8,690) immediately.

This process is 500 times faster than the market average today and requires no sales staff support, provision of proof of income, and other related documents.

The credit scoring process is entirely automated with big data and AI technology on the basis of data from more than 50 million customers from telecommunications networks and social networks such as Zalo and Facebook.

This can be seen as a turning point in card user experience and a strong push to promote banking digitalisation towards a cashless society in Vietnam.

After six months of piloting a project on applying big data and AI with Online Plus credit cards since January 2020, VIB has officially announced successful results recently. This is a specialised card line for online shopping with up to 6 per cent cash back on online transactions and free card fraud insurance package of up to VND105 million ($4,570) per year.

Accompanying the community

Following the prime minister's guidelines and the direction of the State Bank, from the first quarter of 2020, VIB has actively reduced interest rates from 2 to 0.5 per cent for customers affected by COVID-19 pandemic. As of June 30, 2020, about 8,800 customers with over VND9.2 trillion ($400 million) of outstanding loans are entitled to help customers counter the shock after the disease.

Besides, in response to the campaign of the State Bank and the State Bank's Union, VIB has supported VND10.5 billion ($456,520) including medical masks and protective clothing to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.