On July 24, 2024, in Hanoi, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) organized a Mid-year Review Conference under the chair of SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong to evaluate the performance of the banking operations in the first 6 months and to disseminate the tasks in the second half of 2024.
SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong delivers a keynote speech at the Conference
Delivering her opening speech at the Conference, SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong informed that, since the beginning of 2024, the SBV has closely followed the directions of the Government and the Prime Minister, and has issued various guiding documents to the credit institutions to implement the tasks related to the management of the interest rates, the exchange rate, the macroeconomic stability, and the inflation control.
The SBV’s Board of Management
According to Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu, right at the beginning of 2024, the SBV had issued Directive No. 01/CT-NHNN dated January 15, 2024, and the Action Program of the SBV on the implementation of the key tasks of the banking sector in 2024.
Regarding monetary policy management, the SBV has continued to maintain the key interest rates to create favorable conditions for credit institutions to access capital resources from the SBV at low costs. In addition, the SBV has also continued to encourage credit institutions to cut down on their costs to reduce lending interest rates and has requested them to publicize their average lending interest rates as well as information about the credit packages and programs.
The SBV has also managed the exchange rate in a flexible manner, helping to improve the absorbility of the external shocks. As the result, the legitimate demands for foreign currencies have been fully met, and the exchange rate has been maintained basically stable, and even experienced a downward trend for certain periods.
SBV Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu speaks at the Conference
Regarding the credit management, since late March, the credit growth has experienced a positive recovery. By the end of the second quarter of 2024, the credit growth rate had increased by 6% against that of the end of 2023.
The restructuring of the credit institutions’ system in association with the NPL resolution had continued to be strongly implemented. The SBV has put a lot of efforts in this area and has directed the credit institutions to effectively resolve and recover NPLs, improving the credit quality and preventing newly arising NPLs.
The banking inspection and supervision had continued to be strengthened and improved in accordance with the available resources. The operations of the credit institutions had been closely monitored, and all potential risks had been identified and assessed in a timely manner, in order to provide prompt warnings and to be addressed accordingly.
The improvement of the legal frameworks for the monetary and banking operations had continued to make significant achievements, especially in the formulation of the legal documents providing detailed guidance for the new regulations in the Law on Credit Institutions. In the first 6 months of the year, the SBV had submitted to the Government and the Prime Minister 02 Decrees, 01 Decision for issuance, and had also issued 42 Circulars of the banking sector.
The digital transformation of the banking sector and the non-cash payments had continued to be strongly promoted, ensuring the security and safety of all payment operations in the economy. The legal corridor for the digital transformation had continued to be improved. The commercial banks had already issued their own digital transformation strategies and had invested in upgrading the information technology infrastructures, developed new products and services applying hi-tech. The SBV had regularly coordinated with the relevant Ministries and agencies through the information exchanges to deter, detect and prevent crimes related to the payment operations.
All participants at the Conference basically agreed with the assessment report on the performance results in the first 6 months of 2024, and the orientations for the remaining months of the year.
Delivering her concluding remarks at the Conference, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong informed that, in the coming months, the SBV would continue to manage the monetary policy in a proactive and flexible manner, following closely the macro-economic situations in the international and the domestic economy, thereby making efforts to successfully accomplish the established tasks for 2024.
Specifically, the SBV would continue its determination in achieving the goals of controlling the inflation, maintaining the stability in the macro-economy, the forex and the money markets, supporting the economic recovery and development, and promptly adapting to the international and the domestic market developments; continue to conduct measures to support businesses, while still ensuring a safe and sound banking system.
The SBV Governor also requested the entire banking sector to continue to follow closely the directions in Directive No.01/CT-NHNN dated January 15, 2024, Directive No.02/CT-NHNN dated January 15, 2024, and the SBV’s action program to implement the Government’s and the Prime Minister’s directions on the banking operations in 2024, and SBV’s guiding documents, as well as the directions previously mentioned by the SBV Deputy Governors at the Conference, in order to strictly and strongly implement the tasks and the work plans for the last 6 months, and for the whole year of 2024.
LH-HY