The total assets held by Viet Nam’s credit institutions reached more than VND10.3 quadrillion (US$447.8 billion) by the end of May, an increase of 3.27 per cent over the beginning of this year, the latest report from the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) showed.

The assets of seven State-owned banks inched up 1.84 per cent to more than VND4.6 quadrillion, accounting for 45 per cent of the total. State-owned banks where the State holds the majority stake include Agribank, Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), Viet Nam Construction Bank, GPBank and Ocean Bank.

Assets of joint-stock commercial banks stood at more than VND4.2 quadrillion, up 4.17 per cent.

Notably, assets of joint venture and foreign banks rose by 5.73 per cent to surpass VND1 quadrillion for the first time.

Charter capital of joint venture and foreign banks is forecast to continue rising as some of them have recently received the SBV’s approval for an increase. The Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited – HCM City branch, for example, on May 17 was given the green light to increase its charter capital from $80 million to $100 million, and the Ha Noi branch of NongHyup Bank will be raising from $35 million to $80 million.

The SBV report also showed while equity capital of joint stock commercial banks had risen to VND315.34 trillion, the indicator at State-owned banks fell to VND232.47 trillion.

Ending May, the average capital adequacy ratio (CAR), which is expressed as a percentage of the bank’s capital to its risk-weighted assets and is one of the main metrics used to promote the stability and efficiency of financial systems, remained unchanged at 9.39 per cent at State-owned banks, while the figure for joint-stock commercial banks improved to 11.34 per cent.

Despite a slight drop compared with the end of last year, joint-venture and foreign banks had the highest CAR of 27.36 per cent. — VNS