Shinhan Bank, Public Bank the only 2 foreign banks offering above 5% interest rates

South Korea-invested Shinhan Bank and Malaysia-invested Public Bank are the only two foreign commercial banks in Vietnam offering more than 5% interest for 12-month deposits, at 5.3% and 5.6% respectively.

At Shinhan Bank, the rates are slightly higher at 5.4% for 18-month deposits and 5.6% for 24, 36, and 60-month deposits. Deposits made via the Internet receive an additional 0.2 percentage points, except for 12-month terms.

Public Bank Vietnam offers 5.6% interest for 12-17 month deposits, 6.3% for 18 months and 5.8% for 24-60 months. The figures are 0.2 percentage points higher for priority customers.

At all other foreign banks, the interest rates are below 5%. Singapore-invested United Overseas Bank (UOB) Vietnam offers 4.5% interest on 12-month deposits and 4% for six-month and nine-month terms.

Thailand’s Kasikornbank (KBank) gives its highest rate of 5% for 12-month and 24-month deposits. Six-month and three-month terms yield interest rates of 4.7% and 4.25%, respectively.

At HSBC, the interest rates are 3.75% for 12-36 month deposits, 2.75% for 6-9 months, and 2.25% for 3-month deposits.

Standard Chartered offers just 2.9% interest on 12-month deposits; and 3.5% and 3.9% for 24 and 36-month deposits, respectively.

The lowest rate for 12-month deposits is at Malaysia’s Hong Leong Bank. It offers 3.5%, 2% and 1% annual interest on 6-36 month, 3-month and one month deposits, respectively.

Lending interest rates have returned to pre-pandemic levels, but Vietnam’s credit has still expanded slowly at only 7.1% so far this year, said State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Governor Nguyen Thi Hong at a session of the National Assembly sitting.

Hong affirmed that 2023 continues to be a year full of difficulties and challenges derived from the complex and unpredictable developments of the world economy.

Regarding credit supply, at the beginning of 2023, the SBV set a credit growth target of 14% for the whole year and allocated credit quotas to all credit institutions in the system by the middle of the year. “The lending interest rates are now equal to or about 0.3 percentage points lower than pre-Covid levels,” Hong noted.

Interest rates at foreign banks in Vietnam are generally lower than their domestic peers.

In October, private lenders ABBank, Techcombank, GPBank and SeABank and state-controlled Vietcombank became the first five Vietnamese banks to cut their 12-month deposit interest rates to below 5.5%.

ABBank announced a 12-month deposit interest rate of 4.7%, the lowest among domestic banks. Its highest interest rates are 5.2% for seven- and eight-month deposits and 4.9% for terms of six, nine, 10 and 11 month deposits. The rates for other terms are lower than 4.7%.

In November, Vietcombank reduced its interest rate for 12-month deposits to 5.1%, the lowest among the "Big 4" state-controlled and state-owned banks. The other three are BIDV, VietinBank and Agribank.