Vietnam's big state-owned banks including the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, and the Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade have said that they reported rising assets in 2008 despite a stormy year.
The Agribank, the biggest state-owned bank by assets, has said in a statement that its total assets jumped 18.3 per cent to VND386.868 trillion (US$22.9 billion) by 2008-end. Agribank lent a total of VND284.617 trillion (US$16.84 billion), up 17.5 per cent on year out of VND363.001 trillion (US$21.8 billion) total capital. Agribank saw a pretax profit rise 43 per cent.
The BIDV - the second biggest by assets--said on its website that the BIDV had fulfilled the set business targets with total assets rising 19 per cent on year to VND243.867 trillion (US$14.43 billion), total outstanding loans hitting VND149.419 trillion (US$8.84 billion), up 27 per cent, return on equity of 13.6 per cent, return on assets of 0.75 per cent.
The Vietinbank said its total assets reached VND174.6 trillion (US$10.33 billion) by 2008-end, up 17 per cent from 2007, total outstanding loans hit VND120 trillion (US$7.1 billion), up 18.2 per cent on year and non-performing debts accounted for 1.09 per cent of total debts. It made a profit of VND1.563 trillion.
Meanwhile, the Hanoi Housing Development Bank (Habubank), with a 10 per cent stake held by the German-based Deutsche Bank AG, made a pretax profit of VND525 billion with total assets of VND24.863 trillion, total outstanding loans of VND10 trillion.
Recently, local watchdogs forecast that Vietnam’s banking sector will face many challenges this year, urging them to improve capacity to weather slowing down economy. Their bad debts may be higher due to no signs of recovery of the realty market. (Sources from Agribank, BIDV, Vietinbank, and People's Intellect)
Vietnamese
