From the beginning of the year, commercial banks are having a race in regimesfordeposit mobilization and loans.
Banks attempt to attract customers' deposits from the beginning of the year. In photo: Customers make transactions at a bank branch in Binh Duong.
Many programs to attract deposits
In recent years, in the first month of the year, idle money in the population is quite large, many people have chosen banks to deposit. To attract this source, many banks have implemented promotion programs.
Nguyen Thi Le, living in HiepThanh Ward, Thu DauMot City, said that after Lunar New Year holiday, banks often had many promotions, because individuals or small businesses often had idle capital, so they would deposit their money to receive valuable gifts. She was also one customer of these programs.
As a result, banks launched promotions and offered lucky money to attract customers at the beginning of the year. For example, from 12 Dec 2018 to 28 Feb 2019, BIDVimplemented a program to offer thousands of gift worth totally over VND 3.6 billion to new depositors or customers using payment accounts of BIDV SmartBanking and international debit card / BSMS for savings. Accordingly, customers received gifts immediately in cash according to their deposit balance; at the same time, customers received the maximum interest rate coupon up to 0.6% / year.
Besides, gifts are also one of the factors that attract customers to deposit money at banksat the beginning of the year. Therefore, many banks offer gifts in diverse forms such as shopping vouchers, lucky money, items corresponding to deposit amounts, overseas tours...
To regulate loan interest rates
Commercial banks are paying attention to regulating loan interest rates to fit the actual situation. At Vietcombank Binh Duong, loan interest rates have been reduced to support enterprises from prioritized sectors in borrowing VND loans according to regulations of the Government and SBV. Nguyen Thai Minh Quang, Director of Vietcombank Binh Duong, said Vietcombank was applying short-term interest rate of VND 6% / year, 0.5% lower than SBV’s ceiling rate. This bank also decreased the rate by 0.5%/year in 2019 for medium and long-term loans of businesses. In 2018, the loan amount (VND 85 billion) with preferential interest rates at branches was VND 8,000 billion, accounting for 65% of total loans, contributing to sharing difficulties and assisting businesses.
According to Tran Ngoc Linh, Director of BIDV Binh Duong, in 2018, the branch achieved good business results, pre-tax profit increased 16.95%, net service revenue increased by 10.3%, total retail revenue increased by 22% compared to 2017. In the early days of 2019, the branch continued to attract numerous customers’ deposits. The bank will have the most reasonable lending policy for customers.
The 2-digit growth rate target of profit before tax in 2019 requires Sacombank to make great efforts right from the beginning of the year. Pham Thanh Ky, Director of Sacombank Binh Duong, said that with their strength in retailing, this year, the bank would continue to push up small-scale loans, including credit for SMEs, consumption loans, home loans.
At the latest meeting on banking activity assessment in 2018, Vo Dinh Phong, Director of SBV Binh Duong, reported that total loans of credit institutions in the province increased by 15.12%, reached VND 175,817 billion. This growth has met local capital needs. It was worth mentioning that the capital supply of banks for the local economy has gone in the right direction (loans serving prioritized areas under the direction of banking industry). Currently, the province has thousands of enterprise taking bank loans with an interest rate of 6-11%/year depending on short, medium and long term.
According to the general assessment, banking sector strive to reduce lending rates to support businesses and the economy as directed by the Government and the Prime Minister. Accordingly, sticking to developments of macroeconomic situation, money and foreign exchange market, SBV will consider adjusting interest rates flexibly in the open market to support credit institutions in reducing lending interest rates with an appropriate time and level. In the current context, banks are showing their efforts right from the beginning of the year to achieve their plans.
Reported by Thanh Hong – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
