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Business strapped by tight banks
Companies and individuals in HCM City continue to face difficulties in accessing bank loans, even though many of them are willing to pay a higher interest rate.
Many local commercial banks have increased interest rates on some types of loans, and others have temporarily suspended offering of new loans.
Nguyen Thu Hien, who works at a major commercial bank’s transaction office in District 6, said that all loan applications were being considered carefully by bank managers.
"We give priority to old customers but we also are reducing their credit limit. We have to refuse applications for new loans," Hien said.
Independent market watchdogs said that local banks were restricting new loans because the central bank had asked them to ensure credit growth to no more than 30 per cent to help ensure the security of the banking system and help prevent inflation.
In addition, under another new central bank policy, local financial institutions were asked to limit the use of short-term mobilised capital for medium-and long-term loans to ensure credit quality and reduce risks.
In particular, commercial banks can use only 30 per cent of their short-term deposits for medium-and long-term loans.
Under the previous regulation, the banks could use up to 40 per cent of their short-term mobilised capital for long-term loans.
The Viet Nam Thuong Tin Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (Vietbank) has increased its lending interest rate from 14.5 per cent per annum to 15.5 per cent.
The Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) has a new interest rate of 13.47 per cent instead of 12.75 per cent for real estate loans.
The lending interest rate at An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank was raised by 0.6 per cent.
One bank customer, Huynh Thi Kim Hoa, said that she was waiting to hear from Vietbank about a VND300 million (US$16,853) loan to buy an apartment.
"At first, I was told that the new interest rate was 15.57 per cent a year instead of last month’s 14.5 per cent, and then I was required to wait for three days," Hoa said.
Tran Van Hung, owner of a plastics company in District 12, also said that he had to wait for approval for a long time to borrow VND700 million ($39,235) to pay for plastic material imports from China.
vietnamnews
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