Banks in Vietnam have credit growth quotas expanded amid tepid lending

The Vietnamese central bank has allowed credit institutions with robust lending activities to expand their credit growth limits, as part of a plan to stimulate overall lending.

From Wednesday, August 28, banks that have their credit quotas assigned at the start of this year 80% filled up can give loans beyond those limits, in dependence of their respective ratings, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) announced late on Wednesday.

As of August 26, the banking system’s credit growth had reached just 6.63% against end-2023, much lower than the target set earlier this year,” noted the SBV.

Lending has been uneven at banks, even negative at some lenders while several others have their credit growth approaching the limits granted by the SBV.

The SBV’s quota expansion is to comply with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s request for flexible, effective and timely credit management, aiming to meet credit demands while controlling inflation.

The SBV clarified that it is also part of a roadmap to gradually eliminate the mechanism of granting credit growth quotas.

According to banks’ H1/2024 consolidated financial statements, 16 had their credit growth paces higher than the industry’s average. Of them, five banks namely HDBank, ACB, Techcombank, LPBank, and NCB saw their outstanding loans rise over 12% in January-June.

In a move to grant more freedom to banks, at the start of this year, the SBV assigned the whole 15% credit growth target at once instead of giving them in tranches and banks asking for quota expansions like before.