Two banks buck trend with deposit interest rates of 8% plus  

GPBank and Saigonbank are the only banks in Vietnam offering annual interest rates of 8% or more for term deposits, bucking the sector’s trend of cutting interest rates.

GPbank offers 8% interest for 12-month deposits and 8.1% for deposits of 13- 36 months. Saigonbank provides 8% only for term deposits of 13 months and more.

For short-term deposits of one to three months, the highest annual interest rate is 4.75% at many banks including GPBank, ABBank, Bac A Bank, VietBank, SCB, and SHB.

State-controlled Agribank, Vietinbank, BIDV and Vietcombank, known as the “Big 4,” have set the interest rates at 3.4% for one-month deposits and 4.1% for three-month deposits, the lowest in the market.

On 12-month deposits, the highest rates after GPBank are 7.8% at ABBank, Bac A Bank, and VietBank; and 7.7% at PVCombank, Bao Viet Bank, Nam A Bank, SHB, and BVBank. The “Big 4” lenders offer the lowest rate of 6.3% on 12-month deposits.

Deposit interest rates in Vietnam started increasing in late 2022, breaking the 8% threshold and approaching 9% in mid October. The rates began cooling down soon after the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday 2023 in line with moves by the central bank.

Starting June 19, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) cut its refinance and discount rates by 50 basis points to spur the country’s growth amid prolonged global economic headwinds. The refinance rate was cut to 4.5%, the discount rate to 3%, and the overnight electronic interbank rate to 5%. It was the central bank’s fourth policy rate adjustment this year.

The central bank is expected to deliver one more 50-basis point rate cut in the current easing cycle, sometime in the third quarter, to further support the country’s growth, HSBC Vietnam said in its latest national economy analysis.