The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) during a conference last Friday confirmed the possibility of further interest rate reduction in the coming time, saying that short-term lending rates will be slashed to around 7% per annum by the end of this year. SBV governor Nguyen Van Binh said that both deposit and lending rates will drop further if the inflation rate is curbed below 7% and the macro economy is stabilized... 

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on Monday announced to cut the cap on dong deposit rates from 8% to 7.5% per annum for tenors from one month to less than 12 months from today, while interest for longer tenors are still decided by credit institutions. SBV also cut its policy rate by another percentage point with the refinancing rate cut to 8% from 9%. The discount rate fell from 7% to 6%, while the... 

Lending rates may fall in the current macroeconomic context, but it is unlikely they will steeply drop to 5-8% as desired, heard a forum on challenges and opportunities for businesses in 2013 held in HCMC last Saturday. An entrepreneur from the Binh Dinh Businessmen Club in HCMC posed a question as to why lending rates in Vietnam cannot be lowered to 2-3% as in the U.S. or other Western countries.... 

Many Vietnamese banks have started watering down their profit targets amid slowing credit growth and bad debts. Even though lending rates have reduced significantly, the disbursement of capital into the economy is still very slow. According to State Bank statistics, in the year to the end of September, the credit growth of the whole banking system reached only 2.5 per cent compared to the end of 2011. Many... 

Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade, or VietinBank, has continued to launch preferential loan programs for both corporate and individual customers, offering lending rates from 8.95% and 4% per annum for dong and U.S. dollar loans respectively. For enterprises, VietinBank applies the lowest rate of 8.95% per annum to a VND10 trillion credit package while small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)... 

Lending rate downtrend offers homebuyers more chances to access financial assistance from banks, but experts deem it not enough to prop up the property market and lure buyers for investment purposes. Unlike the first two quarters, the third quarter so far has seen many apartment projects, mostly the mid-end ones, launched into the market. Apart from flexible payment methods, project owners also... 

The lending rate for short-term loans to certain customers is now capped at 15% a year, according to a new circular just issued by the central bank, a move described by industry players to be of little impact on the market. Circular 14/2012/TT-NHNN provides that the lending rate will be calculated by adding three percentage points to the ceiling mobilization rate of deposits of one month and longer.... 

Many banks have announced their first quarter earnings that were higher than in the same period last year even though the economy is still in a bad way. Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) reported VND1.39 trillion in after-tax profit in the first quarter, up 60.4% from the year-ago period. The rise partly resulted from a strong drop in risk provisions from VND1.98 trillion in last year’s... 

Despite the central bank’s move to reduce the deposit rate to 12% last week, most experts forecast the lending rate will only fall from the third quarter, with the average rate expected at some 15.5%. Several banks have announced credit lines amounting to trillions of Vietnam dong each at softer rates, but experts said few enterprises could access such sources of cheap capital. An executive of a... 

HSBC has significantly reduced borrowing costs for secured lending. Those include residential mortgages, equity loans and car loans for its retail customers and general banking public in Vietnam. From this month, HSBC took another bold step in reducing its interest rate on secured lending products for the benefit of all Vietnamese customers by a further 1 per cent for all secured lending products. This...