Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) has successfully reduced its non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio to 4.4 per cent after operating for a year under a Government-approved restructuring scheme. — Photo danviet.vn

Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) has successfully reduced its non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio to 4.4 per cent after operating for a year under a Government-approved restructuring scheme.

The bank plans to reduce the NPL rate, which stood at 6.68 per cent early this year, to below 3 per cent in 2018.

Under the restructuring scheme approved by the Government and the State Bank of Viet Nam, Sacombank is allowed to settle its NPLs within 10 years, starting from 2017. However, the bank has targeted to complete the difficult task within five years.

Sacombank chairman Duong Cong Minh said the bank’s restructuring scheme, including shaking up the bank’s organisation and human resources and re-arranging transaction networks and branches, was based on the strategy of “developing rural areas to support urban zones”.

Minh affirmed that his bank has taken drastic measures to implement the restructuring scheme. He believed that bad debt settlement will be effective due to upbeat signs in the property market and the National Assembly’s legal provisions for bad debts.

Sacombank’s representative announced that the two major goals in the 2018-20 period will be to speed up the bank’s restructuring process and the settlement of bad debts to improve its asset quality.

In addition, the bank will expand co-operation, aiming to reduce competitive pressure in the sector and become the top retail bank in the country and the region.

By the end of this year, the bank’s total assets are estimated to rise 11.5 per cent. Its credit growth and capital mobilisation have also risen by 12.9 per cent and 11.5 per cent, respectively.

The bank currently has 566 transaction offices in 48 cities and provinces of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia. — VNS