Vietnam Major Banks to Cap USD Deposits' Rate at 1.5 per cent from Jun 1
Four Vietnamese state-owned commercial banks and Vietcombank have agreed to cut US dollars deposit interest rates to below 1.5 per cent per annum while cap the lending rates at maximum 3 per cent/year from June 1.
It is in response to an agreement reached among state-owned commercial banks and partly-privatized Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) late last week.
Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Van Giau was quoted by the paper as saying that the move is expected to help make positive changes in domestic scorching hot forex market.
The governor has also asked Vietnam Banks Association to seek consensus with other commercial banks to lower interest rates to ease pressure on local dong.
The SBV said its inspectors will also step up large-scale checks from this month to deal with corporate dollar hoarding, which has pushed the exchange rate beyond regulated levels and led to a dollar shortage for the past several months.
The interbank dollar lending rates for 12-month term rose to 2.29 per cent on May 29 from 2.20 per cent a week ago. This is still below the rate of 2.45 per cent on April 29.
Giau once again affirmed that domestic banks had plenty of dollars which can meet all demands of businesses for importing new equipments to improve their competitiveness.
The central bank allows interbank dollar/dong transactions to trade up to 5 per cent on either side of the official reference rate. It set the rate at VND16,940/US$1 today. (Local sources)
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