Amid the adverse impacts of the Covid-19 outbreak, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has issued several documents to instruct the credit institutions to frequently review and assess the losses caused by Covid-19 in order to promptly conduct measures to remove the difficulties of their customer. On March 2, 2020 in Hanoi, the SBV organized a meeting with the credit institutions with a view to enhancing the implementation of various measures to remove the difficulties caused by Covid-19 for the affected individuals and enterprises.
The meeting was chaired by Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu. Also attending the meeting were representatives from the SBV relevant departments; many commercial banks, foreign bank branches, Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, Co-opBank, Vietnam Banks Association…
Promptly reducing financial pressures on enterprises
Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu speaks at the meeting
According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Director General of the Department of Credit for Economic Sectors, within three weeks since the last meeting with the SBV, the credit institutions have provided support to more than 44,000 Covid-19 affected customers, with the total loan outstandings of VND 222 trillion through various measures such as debt rescheduling, waiver or lowering of the lending interest rates against existing loans, other support packages and credit products, etc. in order to share the difficulties with the Covid-19 affected individuals and enterprises.
Moreover, the National Credit Information Centre of Vietnam (CIC) has cut the prices of its credit information products and services provided to the credit institutions, in order to help the institutions to cut down their operating costs, enabling them to lower the interest rates.
Nearly 30 banks have reduced the fees for interbank transfers following the move of the National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) of lowering the switching fees, contributing to strengthening cashless payments.
At the meeting, SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu praised 20 credit institutions for their active support to Covid-19 affected customers (specifically Agribank, Vietcombank, Vietinbank, BIDV, ACB, SeABank, Techcombank, OCB, MB, Saigonbank, Viet Capital Bank, Kienlongbank, Sacombank, TPBank, VPBank, Eximbank, PVCombank, Co-opbank, CIMB Bank Vietnam, United Overseas Bank Vietnam), and encouraged the credit institutions to further enhance more specific measures to improve their assistance towards individuals and enterprises.
Strengthening the development of online payment services
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu emphasized that the whole banking sector should coordinate with the local authorities to strictly implement the measures, quickly overcome the difficulties, continue to support the economic growth, control the inflation and stabilize the macro economy… The credit institutions are also requested to continue the enhancement of the administrative reforms, facilitate the lendings for payment and the development of online payment services…
An overview of the meeting
At the same time, the SBV Deputy Governor shared that the SBV has been closely coordinating with the relevant ministries and agencies to urgently improve the legal frameworks, including the issuance of a Circular to provide guidance for the credit institutions to restructure their loan repayment schedules, waive and reduce the interest rates, etc. for the Covid-19 affected customers.
Le Hang