The State Bank of Vietnam told commercial banks not to have the credit growth rate higher than 20 percent in 2011, but the average credit growth rate of the whole system was 10 percent only. Many banks said they did not use up the “quota.”
As for 2012, the credit growth rate limitations are different for different groups of banks. However, the State Bank has stipulated that the highest growth rate must not be higher than 17 percent this year. The limitations have been set up as a part of the plan to curb inflation at one digit level.
The information about the limited credit growth rates for 2012 has not made banks worried. Some bankers have predicted that it is not easy to find borrowers in 2012, because banks still have to mobilize capital at high interest rates, which means that they cannot lend at low interest rates.
Pham Thien Long, Deputy General Director of HD Bank, said on Dau tu that the current high lending interest rates are really a big barrier to businesses. The high finance costs would force businesses to think carefully before borrowing money. Meanwhile, businesses have also been advised to borrow the sums of money just enough for working capital.
Long said that if borrowing money at such high interest rates, businesses would not make profits. Therefore, Long said that banks would still have to consider the situation carefully to decide whether to push up the lending.
“With what is expected to see in 2012, banks would face some difficulties in lending,” Long said, adding that HD Bank’s credit growth rate was just 18 percent in 2011, lower than the ceiling level set up by the State Bank at 20 percent.
He went on to say that HD Bank would offer more preferences to small and medium enterprises, and export companies to fund the rice, coffee and rubber exports. The enterprises would enjoy the preferential interest rates of 18-19 percent per annum.
General Director of Dong A Bank Tran Phuong Binh also said that in 2012, the lending activities would not see much improvement if compared with 2011, because Binh thinks that 2012 would be another difficult year.
According to Binh, the government initiated program on the national economy restructuring is still in the early stage, while the public debt crisis in Europe has not been settled. Therefore, the priority task for 2012 would be the macroeconomic stability and inflation congestion. If so, interest rates and credit growth would still be the difficult questions for banks in 2012.
Dong A Bank plans to obtain the outstanding loans of 50,600 billion dong by the end of 2012 (the figure was 44,005 billion dong in 2011). In 2011, Dong A Bank also used a half of the quota it was allocated.
The interest rates are expected to decrease in the time to come. However, analysts say everything would still depend on the market demand and the bank liquidity.
According to the HCM City Branch of the State Bank of Vietnam, the total capital mobilized by local banks in the city had increased by 1.7 percent by the end of January 2012 over the end of 2011, and by 17.76 percent over the same period of the last year. Meanwhile, the outstanding loans had increased by 1.5 percent and 8.46 percent, respectively.
Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam has reported that the highest peak business season of enterprises has just finished, and bankers have reported the decreases in the credit growth in February 2012, especially for consumer credit, where the lending interest rates are very high at 22-24 percent per annum.
The newspaper has also quoted Deputy Governor of the State Bank Nguyen Dong Tien as saying that the central bank may consider loosening the credit management.
Source: TBKTVN
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