State-owned Banks Are Still the Most Trustworthy

It is clear that, in addition to large capital base and extensive experience, intensive investments in diversifying products, improving customer services and upgrading internet banking facilities are essential factors to make the name of a bank, especially young private one.

 

According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and many economic experts, the Vietnamese banking sector saw a clear improvement in 2015, featured by high credit growth (18 per cent over 2014), good liquidity, significantly decreased bad debt ratio (to 2.72 per cent), reduced customer risks, better business and financial conditions of customers, and increased demands for banking products and services. These positive changes significantly increased optimism about prospects of business and credit growth for many banks. According to survey data about commercial banks in Vietnam collected by Vietnam Report in June 2016, all banks said they are optimistic about their financial prospects in 2016, with 41.7 per cent of respondents anticipating a very positive outlook and 58.3 per cent expecting a relatively positive outlook. 91.7 per cent of respondents anticipated a growth of over 10 per cent in 2016 while only 8.3 per cent forecast a more modest growth of less than 10 per cent.

 

Remarking on operation-affecting factors, banks agreed that risk management and reputation are two most influential factors to business results in 2016. It seems that the fear of bad debts still haunts banks. As a result, risk management is always a top priority in any circumstances.

 

Reputation is also the most important factor to customers’ choice decisions. According to a consumer survey by Vietnam Report in May and June 2016, three most important factors that customers take into consideration when they decide to choose a banking product or service, namely strong brand and reputation, convenient large-scaled network transaction, and fast service and simple procedure.

 

Evidently, building a trustworthy brand is crucial to any commercial bank. Bad news runs hundreds of times wider and farther than good one. Therefore, to become the first choice of customers, banks need to have strategies and certain investments for brand and reputation management in the media in the coming time, said Vietnam Report.

Fact-finding results announced by Vietnam Report are based on scientific and objective principles. Banks are rated and ranked from three main criteria: Financial capacity - shown in the latest audited financial statements (total revenues, capital efficiency, bad debt ratio, etc.) with 35 per cent of weighting points; media credibility gauged by Media Coding method - coding of articles on banks in the media (30 per cent of weighting points); and online survey on consumer satisfaction with banking products/services (35 per cent of weighting points). Besides, a business survey - conducted in June 2016 - on capital size, revenue growth, profitability, new product/service development plans and business prospects in 2016 is seen as an additional factor for positioning banks in the industry.

 

Accordingly, banks present in this list have financial capacity, business experience and potential growth and they are rated positively by customers for good quality of products and services in 2015 - 2016.