The ceiling for Standard Chartered Viet Nam is now 30 per cent. — Photo doisongphapluat

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has allowed some lenders to raise their credit growth ceiling this year in a move to boost economic growth, according to Thoi bao Ngan hang (Banking Times).

The lending ceiling of Vietcombank and VietinBank has been raised to 16 per cent, while the figure for SeaBank and TPBank is 35 per cent.

The ceiling of Tech-combank and LienViet-PostBank was lifted to 30 per cent. The new credit ceilings of VPBank, Nam A Bank, SHB and VIB are 18 per cent, 25 per cent, 15 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. The figure for BaoVietBank is 36 per cent.

Foreign banks

The central bank also adjusted the lending ceilings at the branches of some foreign banks. The ceiling for Standard Chartered Viet Nam is now 30 per cent, while for Korea Exchange Bank's Ha Noi branch it is 35 per cent. The ceiling for Taipei Fubon's Binh Duong branch is 24 per cent.

Earlier this year, the central bank set lower cred-it growth ceilings for the banks mentioned.

The central bank had also fixed the maximum limit for outstanding loans for some banks this year. The limit for Kookmin's HCM City was VND1.95 trillion (US$89.86 million), and for Woori's HCM City branch it was VND3.99 trillion ($183.87 million). The figure for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's Ha Noi branch was VND4.485 trillion ($206.68 million), and for PNP Paribas's HCM City branch it was VND5 trillion ($230.41 million), while for Citibank, NA's HCM City branch it was set at VND2.79 trillion ($128.57 million).

The central bank has also directed lenders to draw up credit-risk management measures and pledge to implement them to better control bad debts. The measures must be submitted to the bank before July 31.

The lenders are also required to ensure that the credit system is focused on production and trading, especially in agriculture and rural industries, exports and supporting industries, small- and medium-sized firms, and high-tech firms. In addition, the lenders have to closely supervise lending to risky sectors, such as real estate and those that take a long time for capital retrieval.

This is the fourth year that the central bank has fixed a credit growth ceiling for each bank.

As the country's credit growth rose nearly 6 per cent in the first half of the year against December last year, SBV Governor Nguyen Van Binh said the bank could lift the credit growth target this year from 13-15 per cent, which was set earlier this year at 17 per cent to boost economic growth. — VNS