While Vietcombank leads state-owned banks in terms of profit, there are three candidates for the No 1 position among private banks.

Commercial banks’ finance reports show that bad debts have been increasing again. Bad debt will be one of big problems for banks this year.

2019 has been a good year for the banking sector. Most commercial banks performed well with profit results exceeding the targets set earlier in the year.

The BIDV’s sale of shares to South Korean investor, the technology upgrading race among banks and a series of moves taken by the central bank are the highlights of 2019.

Banks’ nine-month financial reports show that bad debts have increased compared with the beginning of the year, though the bad debt ratio has fallen.

The banking sector had made considerable headway into settling bad debt, restructuring credit institutions and developing the banking system two years since the National Assembly issued a resolution on the industry.

Many banks are auctioning mortgaged assets, mainly real estate, worth trillions of Vietnamese dong to speed up the resolution of non-performing loans.

Established six years ago by the government, the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) has not been very effective.

Five years after the Government issued Decree 67, which aimed at supporting fishermen to build bigger and more modern steel-hulled boats, the decree has hardly been a panacea for the country’s fishermen.

Many commercial banks have reported profits of trillions of dong in the first half of the year.

Some banks have recovered trillions of Vietnamese dong in bad debt by selling off assets secured with non-performing loans in the first half of 2019.

Many banks have bought back the bad debts that they had sold before to the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC), taking a new step forward in bad debt settlement.

VietNamNet Bridge - The reported bad debts of many commercial banks decreased within the last three months of 2018. At some banks, the debts were halved.

VietNamNet Bridge - The bad debt trading market is getting busy as properties used as collateral for bad loans are selling more quickly now. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Experts say that bad debts will be settled only if there is a debt market, but the market still has not taken shape because of the lack of a legal framework.

VietNamNet Bridge - While commercial banks in the world are changing fast to adapt to the 4.0 industrial revolution, Vietnam’s banks are still busy trying to raise capital.

VietNamNet Bridge - A report of the State Bank showed that the bad debt of the entire banking system had dropped from 10.08 percent in 2016 to 6.7 percent by the end of June 2018.

VietNamNet Bridge - The Vietnam Asset Management Company and commercial banks are offering to sell valuable real estate assets worth tens to hundreds of billion of dong each.

VietNamNet Bridge - The bad debt settlement process took a big leap after the National Assembly issued Resolution 42, giving more power to banks to collect debts.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese are increasingly borrowing money to spend on consumer goods as consumer loans had reached $5 billion by the end of 2017.