Vietnamese banks aim to become among top 100 in Asia

At a recent meeting between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and representatives of the largest commercial joint-stock banks in Vietnam, the PM urged the banking sector to effectively implement its development goals.

"Vietnam’s banking sector should have at least 2-3 commercial banks ranked among the top 100 strongest banks in Asia by the end of 2025," said the PM.

To achieve this objective, the PM outlined six key areas for improvement, six areas for reduction, and six areas for acceleration.

The six key areas for improvement include strengthening private commercial banks, expanding credit access for small and medium-sized enterprises and growth sectors, resolving legal obstacles, and improving credit quality.

"Greater coordination between the government, banks, and businesses is needed, alongside better bank management. Transparency in interest rates, coupled with stronger supervision, risk management, and anti-corruption efforts, is also crucial to combating black credit," said the PM.

The six areas for reduction include lowering lending rates to reasonable levels, reducing transaction and operational costs, streamlining administrative procedures, minimising red tape, combating negative practices and conflicts of interest, and reducing bad debt.

The six areas for acceleration focus on advancing digital transformation, improving service quality, enhancing the quality of human resources, upgrading banking infrastructure, supporting production and business activities, creating jobs and livelihoods for the public to drive economic growth, and accelerating the expansion into international markets.

In response to the PM's directives and to propose solutions for unlocking capital flows and improving the banking sector's quality, Ho Hung Anh, chairman of Board of Directors at Techcombank, said, “The economic difficulties caused by natural disasters, pandemics, and global economic and political instability have posed significant challenges for Techcombank and other banks in Vietnam when supporting businesses in production and trade.”

"Therefore, solutions such as extending and supplementing low-interest loan packages, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as businesses facing difficulties in exports and those affected by natural disasters and pandemics, are necessary to help businesses access capital more easily," said Hung Anh at the meeting.

Deposits in the banking system are increasing in tandem with rising interest rates, amid a crisis in risky asset investment channels.

Banks have demonstrated their determination to achieve sustainability in Vietnam by partnering with regional lenders and global investors, emphasising green finance and rigorous due diligence.

Banks are developing favourable credit schemes for the manufacturing and business sectors, while relaxing lending standards across all customer groups and the majority of loan sectors in the last quarter of the year.