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Banks rush to announce credit growth rate quotas
Banks have hurriedly made public their credit growth rate quotas for 2012; because this is an effective way to declare that they are good banks.
The State Bank of Vietnam has announced that it has categorized commercial banks into four groups which would receive different quotas for credit growth rates in 2012. The best banks would get the highest quota of 17 percent, while the worst ones will still be able to mobilize capital and lend, but will not have credit growth.
Right after the announcement, people have been making a wild guess about the “health” of the banks, because the central bank refused to give the names of the worst banks, which belong to the fourth group of banks, for fear that the information exposition may lead to the chaos on the market.
However, the information about the banks still has been exposed to the public by commercial banks themselves. Some banks have very delighted to announce that they belong to the first group of banks, or the best banks, which receive the highest credit growth rate quota for 2012, at 17 percent. Meanwhile, other banks have sighed with relief that they belong to the second group and have the right to obtain the credit growth rate of 15 percent.
As anticipated, the first-group banks all belong to G12 group (which was considered the most powerful one in Vietnam).
Maritime Bank on February 16 received the notice from the central bank that it will be allowed to obtain the growth rate of 17 percent this year, which means that it is a first-group bank.
Tran Xuan Quang, Deputy General Director of Maritime Bank said that with the new credit growth target, in 2012, the bank would prioritize to lend to small and medium enterprises which would account for 50 percent of the outstanding loans. It is very likely that from the second half of 2012, the bank would also provide individual loans.
VIB Bank on February 16 also received the decision that it can have the credit growth rate of 17 percent this year.
Other big guys, namely Agribank, Vietinbank, Vietcombank, BIDV and VP Bank, have also been told to develop the credit by 17 percent this year. Nguyen Ngoc Bao, Chair of Agribank said that, in 2012, agriculture and rural areas would still be the priority market for the bank which would account for 80 percent of the bank’s outstanding loans.
An official of the State Bank has said that the bank has categorized the banks after considering the health of the banks thoroughly. The fourth-group banks will still be able to mobilize capital and lend, though the total outstanding loans do not increase.
Banking experts have warned that the information about the classes of banks would raise anxiety on the market, because people would compare the allowed credit growth rates among banks.
To date, five banks belonging to the first group, and 1-2 banks belonging to the second group have announced their credit growth limits for 2012. In some more days, when more banks of the first and second groups announce their credit growth rate targets, people would know who belong to the fourth group, even though the weak banks do not expose information themselves.
Analysts have warned that the market would see reactions to the information about the classification, while the fourth-group banks would be put at disadvantages. Therefore, the central bank should be well prepared for the things to happen.
While some banks have delighted to announce their credit growth rate quotas, other banks, which have not received notices from the central bank and may fall into the list of the third and fourth groups, feel anxious. A director of a bank in HCM City which may belong to the third group said that weaker banks would have to bear a hard psychological pressure, when big banks make noisy campaigns to push up credit.
Chair of a Hanoi based bank said on Dan tri that he will not make announcement about the ranking of the bank, even if his bank belongs to the first group, because the central bank has requested banks not to make public the information.
“When the names of the banks belonging to first and second groups are made public, people will easily figure out the banks of the third and fourth groups. This would be a bad thing to the market,” he said.
vietnamnet, VnExpress
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