Moody’s upgrades ratings of 12 Vietnamese banks

Hanoi - Moody's Investors Service has raised ratings of 12 Vietnamese banks following its upgrade of Vietnam's sovereign rating to Ba2 from Ba3.

Moody's has upgraded the long-term local (LC) and foreign currency (FC) deposit and issuer ratings of eight banks by one notch (Vietcombank, BIDV, OCB, SeABank, TPBank, Agribank, VIB, VietinBank) and the LC and FC Counterparty Risk Ratings and Counterparty Risk Assessment of seven banks by one notch of BIDV, Agribank, VietinBank, ABBank, LienVietPostBank, SHB, MSB.

The rating actions on the banks follow the firm’s upgrade of Vietnam's sovereign rating to Ba2 from Ba3 on September 6, and change of the sovereign rating outlook to stable from positive on the same date.

Moody's said Vietnam's credit strength is a key input in its deposit and debt ratings for financial institutions in the country. The upgrade in bank's ratings reflects the government’s stronger ability to provide support for banks in times of stress.

Besides, Moody's has also changed the rating outlooks of Agribank, BIDV, OCB, SeABank, TPBank, VIB, Vietcombank and Vietinbank to stable from positive. The rating outlook of ABBank, LienVietPostBank and MSB remains stable while that of SHB stays positive.

Amid the complex international situation leading to over 30 rating downgrades globally over the past eight months, Vietnam is the only country in the Asia-Pacific and one of the four in the world to record a rating upgrade by Moody's since the beginning of 2022.

The Ministry of Finance said the upgrade of Vietnam’s sovereign rating to Ba2 shows the Moody’s recognition of the country’s increasing economic strength and better resilience to external macroeconomic shocks compared to others with the same rating.

Moody's, one of the big three credit ratings agencies, has upgraded the Vietnamese government's long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Ba2 from Ba3.