Fred Hochberg, President of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) of the United States and other high-ranking leaders of the bank will pay a visit to Vietnam from February 5-8. The three-day visit aims to seek opportunities for financial support for US high-quality goods and services in Vietnam. Accordingly, the delegation of the US finance organization will meet with Vietnam’s trade partners and... 

A big capital volume is flowing into the banking sector, where a drastic restructuring process is taking place. However, experts have noted that the capital mostly has come from laymen, or the investors who are not keen on the finance and banking. On January 1, 2012, SCB–the bank which took shape after the merging of the four banks, officially became operational. SCB is not the only bank which... 

Bank deposit interest rates will likely drop to about 10 percent per year if the government achieves its set target of controlling the rate of inflation at 9-9.5 percent by year-end, said State Bank Governor Nguyen Van Binh. Such a decrease is possible given the fact that the monthly consumer price index (CPI) has gradually slowed down at a rate of less than 1 percent since August last year. Moreover,... 

The cash volume withdrawn from Automated Teller Machines (ATM) systems of local banks in January is estimated to hit some VND60 trillion, four times higher than other previous months, said Smartlink Card Services Joint Stock Co. The upsurge is attributed to strong cash demand during the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, said Smartlink, which operates the payment clearing system connecting 35 member... 

The central bank has mapped out a plan to merge three local card networks to establish a unified card switching center. Smartlink Card Services and Vina Brilliant Card (VNBC) companies will no longer provide card switching services, which will be transferred to Vietnam National Financial Switching Joint Stock Company, better know as BanknetVN, a source told the Daily. The central bank has submitted... 

Governor Nguyen Van Binh of the State Bank of Vietnam has reiterated now is not the right time to lower lending rates, so enterprises should look at other funding sources instead of solely depending on bank loans. “We often rush to the bank whenever we’re in need of money,” he replied to an enterprise’s question about whether interest rates would be lowered at an online meeting on banks and... 

Southeast Asia Commercial Bank (SeABank) will become the nation’s first institution to provide AutoBank services with the first two points up and running in Hanoi and HCMC early next week. The AutoBank system will operate 24 hours, providing full basic banking services for customers to deposit money, withdraw cash, exchange currencies and search for information, said Le Thanh Hai, director of the... 

Several big banks have earned hefty profits in 2011, marking a year of successful operation among large players in the banking industry despite the negative economic downturn at home. Major lenders like Vietcombank, VietinBank, Sacombank and Eximbank also have reaped impressive results from their business performance in 2011. Vietcombank said its consolidated profits last year reached VND5.7 trillion,... 

The total amount of deposits at banks in HCMC is falling sharply, prompting many smaller banks in the city to breach the ceiling of 14% for deposit interest rates to attract more funds, said a senior official of the central bank. Nguyen Ngoc Thang, deputy director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s HCMC branch, told a year-end review meeting on Wednesday that deposits at local banks have taken a nosedive... 

Five to eight more banks will be involved in merger in 2012 as part of the process of restructuring credit institutions, said Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Van Binh. Mr Binh made the statement at a conference on external economic affairs in Hanoi on January 11. He said the merger will help strengthen financial capacity and improve transparency in the banking system in 2012. The...