Commercial banks have performed well in the first half of 2017 (H1), and business results show that many have already met more than half their annual profit targets.

Vietcombank and Vietinbank were the first two State-owned banks to announce preliminary business results in H1.

Vietcombank announced that its pre-tax profit in H1 had crossed VND5 trillion (US$220 million), up 20 per cent year on year, and 53.2 per cent of its 2017 target.

Vietcombank’s general director Pham Quang Dung said the result was supported by healthy growth in all sectors, following a three-year restructure.

Between January and June, the bank set aside VND3 trillion for risky loans, bringing its provision fund to VND10.7 trillion, equal to 136 per cent of its total non-performing loans.

The bank’s capital mobilisation increased by 10.4 per cent to VND660 trillion, while its credit growth rose to around VND534 trillion, or 13.1 per cent, achieving 95.7 per cent of its target for 2017, which is 15 per cent credit growth.

Vietinbank also released its H1 business results, posting a pre-tax profit of VND4.66 trillion, up 12 per cent year on year, which fulfils 54 per cent of this year’s target.

The bank mobilised capital worth VND947 trillion, marking a 9.7 per cent increase from early 2017, while its outstanding loans rose 9.6 per cent to VND767.8 trillion.

Le Duc Tho, general director of the bank, said Vietinbank’s total assets are to the tune of VND1,030 trillion at the end of June, up 9 per cent from December 31, 2016.

In the near future, Tho said, Vietinbank would channel credit into the manufacturing value chain, hi-tech and clean agriculture, start-ups, and small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Joint stock commercial banks also posted optimistic results in H1.

Sacombank announced that its pre-tax profit has surged by 70 per cent year on year to VND428 billion, equal to 73 per cent of its entire year’s target. Sacombank’s revenue from services touched VND727 billion, up 27 per cent year on year and accounts for 23 per cent of the bank’s total revenue.

Notably, Sacombank settled VND845 billion of its non-performing loans. Its credit growth and capital mobilisation have also risen by 10.1 and 9.7 per cent, respectively.

The OCB, with a pre-tax profit of VND494 billion in H1, met 63 per cent of its 2017 target. Its outstanding loans rose 25 per cent year on year to VND44.96 trillion, while its mobilised capital was VND51.3 trillion, up 11 per cent.

The same trend was also seen in TPBank and LienVietPostBank, which posted pre-tax profits of VND483 billion and VND900 billion, equal to 62 per cent and 60 per cent of their 2017 target, respectively.

As per a recent survey on business trends of credit institutions, conducted by the State Bank of Viet Nam’s Statistics Department, 64 per cent of the credit institutions affirmed that business conditions in Q2 of 2017 noticeably improved compared to Q1.

Eighty-two per cent of the credit institutions surveyed are optimistic that business conditions in 2017 will continue to improve and strengthen, as compared to 2016, the survey revealed. And 90.6 per cent of them believe their pre-tax profit will see positive growth this year. The net income from both services and self-business is also expected to improve remarkably. — VNS