On August 28, 2018, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) organized a video conference on the people’s credit funds for 2018. The conference was under the co-chairmanship of SBV Governor Le Minh Hung, SBV Deputy Governors Dao Minh Tu, Nguyen Kim Anh and Doan Thai Son. Also attending the conference were representatives from the relevant ministries, agencies and organizations in Hanoi.
This conference was aimed at finalizing the Scheme on strengthening and developing the system of people’s credit funds until 2020 and orientations to 2030, which will be submitted to the Government for approval. At the same time, the conference would lay a foundation for the SBV entities and the people’s credit funds to continue with the effective implementation of the measures of restructuring the system of people’s credit funds in the coming time.
Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu speaks at the conference
In his opening speech, Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu emphasized that, over the past time, the SBV Board of Management and the local authorities have strictly directed and addressed the issues related to the implementation of the Scheme on restructuring of the credit institutions in association with dealing with bad debts for 2016-2020 period, with the focus on controlling the new establishment of people’s credit funds, giving priority to the remote and rural areas with lack of access to banking services. However, there have been certain limitations and obstacles of several weak people’s credit funds in some locations, which has partly affected the operational safety of the system of people’s credit funds in particular, and has especially impacted the dynamic development of the financial sector as well as the safe and sound banking operations in general. In this context, the SBV had acknowledged that it is necessary to urgently assess and review comprehensively the operational situation of the people’s credit fund system in order to propose systemic and effective measures to achieve the objectives of restructuring the credit institutions in association with dealing with bad debts for 2016-2020 period and also in the next periods.
According to a report at the conference, by June 30, 2018, there were 1,181 people’s credit funds operating in 57 cities and provinces. The number of members participating in the people’s credit funds was 1,590,963. In general, the operations of the system of people’s credit funds were relatively stable.
An overview of the conference
In concluding the conference, Governor Le Minh Hung required a focus on reviewing and strengthening the current system of the people’s credit funds to ensure its safe and sound operations; formulation of a mechanism for managing the system of people’s credit funds with different levels in line with the model of collective economy and the governance/management capacity of the people’s credit funds; improving the legal and policy framework for the system of people’s credit funds; establishment of a specialized, focal unit within the Banking Supervision Agency to implement the tasks of managing the licensing, developing mechanisms and policies on the operational organization, the supervision and inspection as well as sanctions applicable to all credit institutions being cooperatives and micro-finance institutions…
Le Hang