USD rate passes VND25,000 milestone at top Vietnam lender Vietcombank

Vietcombank, the largest Vietnamese lender by market capitalization and foreign exchange transactions, increased its USD buying and selling rates to VND24,790 and VND25,130 Wednesday afternoon.

The move followed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the country’s central bank, increasing the central exchange rate to VND24,020 the same day, up VND15 from a day ago.

Per the SBV's trading band of +-5%, commercial banks can set their exchange rates between VND22,819 and VND25,221. Wednesday’s exchange rate was close to the peak of VND24,107 reached on October 27, 2023.

At BIDV, another one of Vietnam’s “Big 4” banks, the buying and selling rates were VND24,815 and VND25,125 Wednesday afternoon, respectively, up from VND24,755 and VND25,065 the previous day.

At yet another “Big 4” member, VietinBank, the buying rate went up to VND24,835 Wednesday from Tuesday’s VND24,725; while the selling rate rose to VND25,175 from VND25,145.

Corresponding figures at Techcombank, a leading private lender, were VND24,815 and VND25,125 on Wednesday afternoon, compared to VND24,755 and VND25,065 a day earlier.

SSI Research, the research body of major securities broker SSI, attributed the greenback’s upward trend to the pressure of the international market outweighing good domestic performance indicators including high trade surplus and foreign direct investment (FDI) disbursement.