Major Vietnam banks report massive H1 profit surge

Five of 27 Vietnamese banks that have released their Q2/2024 financial statements have posted a huge surge in H1/2024 pre-tax profits, with LPBank and Techcombank taking the lead.

LPBank and Techcombank reported pre-tax profits of VND5.92 trillion ($233.53 million) and VND15.63 trillion ($616.57 million), up 142% and 38.6% year-on-year, respectively.

LPBank attributed its breakthrough profit surge to increased income from foreign currency trading activities thanks to demand from export-oriented manufacturing businesses.

The addition of new products and an increase in payment and guarantee services, both domestic and international, sharply increased income for services, it said.

The banks’ financial statements show that net interest income was the main factor determining profit growth. For example, in the first six months, LPBank’s net interest income soared to VND7.11 trillion ($280.5 million), up 36% over the same period in 2023, mainly thanks to a significant fall in interest costs.

Techcombank’s net interest income also surged 40% to VND17.98 trillion ($709.27 million). The lowest deposit interest rates in 20 years and high lending rates boosted its H1 earnings.

LPBank and Techcombank are the two banks with the highest credit growth rates at present, recording 14-15% in just six months.

Meanwhile, two small-scale banks, PGBank and Baoviet Bank, boasted respective credit supply of VND36.34 trillion ($1.43 million) and VND44.77 trillion ($1.77 billion).

Although their net interest income increased sharply by nearly 20%, strong increases in provisioning costs (40% and 83% respectively) caused their profits to decline or go up slightly.

PGBank's H1 pre-tax profits fell 7% year-on-year to VND267 billion ($10.53 million), while the corresponding figure for Baoviet Bank was VND25 billion ($986,195), up 4% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) posted consolidated 6-month pre-tax profits of VND10.5 trillion ($414.2 million), an increase of 5% over the same period in 2023.

Although its credit grew by 12.7% to VND543.85 trillion ($21.45 billion), its net interest income expanded just 11% to VND13.83 trillion.

Bad debt has become a matter of concern for ACB, with the ratio standing at 1.49% as of June 30. Its bad debt has increased 39% from end-2023 to VND8.12 trillion ($320.32 million), with group 5 debt (capital likely to be lost) surging 41.7% and accounting for 68% of total bad debt.

Some lenders have announced their preliminary H1 business results.

SeABank reported pre-tax profits of more than VND3.24 trillion ($167.26 million), up 61% year-on-year.

Nam A Bank said its H1 pre-tax profit hit a new peak, exceeding 50% of the whole year plan (VND4 trillion or $157.8 million).

According to State Bank of Vietnam Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu, the current bad debt ratio of the entire banking industry is about 5%. If potential debt and the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC)’s debt are included, this would rise to about 6.9%.

The government has targeted keeping the bad debt ratio below 3% by the end of 2025 (including debt on the balance sheet, potential debt and restructured debt).