Commercial Banks See Soaring Profits

 

According to initial calculations, in the January-June period, the Military Bank (MB) recorded a VND126 billion (US$7.88 million) pre-tax profit, fulfilling 66 per cent of its yearly target while Hanoi Building Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Habubank) reported a 145 per cent growth in profit.

 

Outstandingly, the newly listed Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank) led the banking sector with a pre-tax profit of VND286.8 billion (US$17.93 million) in the six months, fulfilling 70 per cent of this year’s target of VND407 billion (US$25.44 million).

 

Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) ranked second with a six-month untaxed profit of VND280.5 billion (US$17.53 million). At present, ACB has a second largest chartered capital after Sacombank.

 

ACB enjoyed the highest profit growth of 155 per cent and was rated the best joint stock bank in Vietnam.

 

In addition, the Vietnam Export and Import Commercial Bank (Eximbank) also enjoyed strong development. In spite of being restructured and dealing with recent losses, Eximbank reported its pre-tax profit in the six months up 550 per cent on-year to VND161 billion (US$10 million). According to Mr. Nguyen Gia Dinh, General Director of Eximbank, the bank has successfully dealt with bad debts and kept the outstanding loan and bad debt proportion at 2.2 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively. These notable achievements have laid a strong ground for the bank to expand business copes and provide new services for its clients. In August, Eximbank will issue an additional 400,000 new shares to raise its chartered capital from VND815 billion (US$50.9 million) to VND1,200 billion (US$75 million). In 2006, Eximbank expects to obtain a pre-tax profit of some VND300 billion (US$18.75 million).