Higher limit credit cards

Consumer credit has grown by five times in the last five years, according to the State Bank of Vietnam. The Financial Times newspaper noted that Vietnam’s consumer lending field remains ‘young’. Vietnam has great potential to develop the field thanks to the young population (70 percent of people are 15-64 years old) and the high economic growth rate (over 6 percent). It's easy to access consumer loans In late 2012, total consumer loans were VND230 trillion, accounting for 8 percent of total outstanding loans of the economy. By late 2017, the figure had reached VND1,100 trillion, or 4.8 times higher than 2012, accounting for 18 percent of total outstanding loans. As of December 31, 2018, the total assets of finance and finance leasing companies had reached VND167.822 trillion, up by 18.27 percent over the end of 2017, while their chartered capital had increased by 17.2 percent and regulatory capital by 39.4 percent. The consumer lending market includes … [Read more...] about Consumer credit: risks loom large

According to Pham Dang Khoa, deputy director of Vietinbank’s Card Centre, the biggest problem for banks when it comes to replacing magnetic strip cards is the cost. Banks have to pay for the new cards and invest in devices that accept them, such as ATMs and POS machines. Meanwhile, most customers are not willing to pay to switch. With more than eight million existing customers using magnetic strip cards, Khoa estimated his bank will have to spend a large sum as the cost of producing a chip card is roughly eight to ten times higher than magnetic strip cards. To encourage customers to use chip cards, Khoa said VietinBank would help customers replace their old cards due to the advantages of the new ones. According to Khoa, the information contained in the chips was encrypted and only the issuing bank could read the data on it. Thus, they reduce the risk of information being stolen and counterfeits. There have been no issues regarding security with the new cards, which shows how … [Read more...] about Banks issues more chip cards for security

BIDV was among the largest bond issuers in November, with VNĐ8.6 trillion. — Photo BIDV Rising medium- and long-term capital demands to meet stricter regulations on credit safety limits and capital adequacy early next year were putting pressure on commercial banks to issue bonds in the final months of the year, experts said. The latest report from Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI) released on Monday showed that banks continued to issue bonds worth nearly VND14.15 trillion (US$615.17 million) last month, bringing the total in the first eleven months of this year to VND94 trillion. The issuance made banks the main player in the corporate bond market in the period, accounting for 45.5 per cent of the market’s total bond value. In November, BIDV was among the largest bond issuers with VND8.6 trillion. The bank issued bonds worth a total of nearly VND12.82 trillion in the first eleven months with terms from six to ten years and variable rates to increase long-term … [Read more...] about Banks rush to issue bonds ahead of capital requirement deadline

Nguyen Van Phuc of Dong Thap province’s Thap Muoi district said he planted IR 50404 rice this time and got a yield of seven tonnes per hectare, higher than last year. Harvesting the winter – spring rice crop in Kien Giang Province’s Chau Thanh District. (Photo: Vietnamnews) Besides, costs were lower than previous years because rice fields had plenty of sediments deposited meaning farmers could use less fertilisers, he said. Authorities had released floodwaters rich with sediments from the rising Mekong River into nearly half of the province’s rice farming areas between August and October last year. Besides depositing the sediments, this also helped destroy disease-causing pests. More than 197,000ha were planted in the province, 60 percent of them with high-quality rice varieties, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Farmers have harvested more than 50,000ha so far with an average yield of 6.5 tonnes per hectare. … [Read more...] about Mekong Delta enjoys good start to rice harvest

From November 18 to November 22, State Bank of Viet Nam had made a net cash injection of VND25 trillion ($1.09 billion) into the economy. — Photo vneconomy On December 2 the State Bank of Viet Nam issued 14-day bills worth VND18 trillion (US$782.6 million) at an interest rate of 4 per cent through open market operations. Earlier, from November 18 to November 22, it had made a net cash injection of VND25 trillion ($1.09 billion) into the economy. Experts estimate that around VND62.2 trillion has been pumped through the OMO channel in the last week of November by the central bank after eight straight months of withdrawing money. The injections indicated that the liquidity in the banking system had dried up over the last few months, and the central bank’s move has helped reduce lending interest rates on the inter-bank market, which had risen significantly. On November 26 interest rates on loans of up to one month were up by 0.7-1 percentage points from the previous day to a … [Read more...] about Central bank policies help replenish banking sector liquidity