|
Banks’ profit mainly comes from services
Banks have reported satisfactory business results for the first month of the year. However, the credit growth has not improved.
Bankers said that unlike the same period of the last year, when banks earned fat profits, mainly from credit, the loaning in January only accounted for a small proportion of banks’ profit.
By January 31, 2009, Lien Viet Bank had had the total assets of nearly VND10 trillion ($0.58bil), an increase of VND1,849 billion ($108.76mil) over the same period of the last year. The bank’s total outstanding loans had reached VND2,794 billion ($164.35mil), up by VND121 billion, while the profit had reached VND44.5 billion.
Lien Viet Bank’s General Director Nguyen Duc Huong said that the credit just brought 10% of the total turnover of the bank, while the profit has been brought about mainly by services, debt trading, and capital trading on the interbank market.
Huong said that Lien Viet Bank plans to obtain a pretax profit that is up by 10-15% in comparison with 2008’s figure (VND444 billion). The bank plans to focus on retail products this year.
In order to compete with other banks in consumer credit, Lien Viet Bank has set the credit limit of up to VND500 million per client, with the interest rate of 12% per annum. Moreover, the bank has reserved a volume of VND8,000-10,000 billion to provide to clients under the 4% interest rate subsidy program.
SCB has reported the total assets of the bank at VND38,769 billion ($2,280mil) by the end of January 2009, and the pretax profit at VND58.706 billion ($8.28mil) in January 2009. SCB has announced the lowest interest rate in the market, at 5.5%, for the loans to clients of the interest rate subsidy program. However, the bank said that in the current conditions, the credit growth in the first month of the year was modest, while the bank earned its profit mainly from currency trading and other banking services.
General Director of Tien Phong Bank Dao Trong Khanh also said that the VND12 billion worth of pretax profit the bank earned in January 2009 mainly came from services, rather than credit.
Khanh said that Tien Phong bank is now opening its doors to consumer credit with the loaning interest rate at 12.5%. The bank hopes to obtain a pretax profit of VND150 billion this year.
Tran Xuan Huy, General Director of Sacombank, said that after three weeks of implementing the interest rate subsidy program, the bank has disbursed VND1 trillion to clients.
Huy thinks that the credit growth and the disbursement rate under the demand stimulus program will be improved by the end of March.
VietNamNet, DTCK
|
