Vietnam International Bank (VIB)’s total assets witnessed a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent to VND115 trillion (over US$5 billion) in the first half of this year.

During the reviewed period, VIB’s credit balance reached VND75.68 trillion, up 15.7 per cent year-on-year, including lending balance of VND69.2 trillion, after its unaudited business results were released on Tuesday.

Most of the credit growth was contributed by personal loans, which went up by more than 30 per cent compared with the end of 2016, clearly demonstrating the bank’s direction to focus on the retail segment, VIB said, adding that deposits also saw a yearly growth of 15 per cent.

From January to June, the bank’s pre-tax profit topped VND380 billion, surging 25 per cent compared with the same period in 2016 or accounting for 51 per cent of its yearly plan.

According to the latest data, VIB’s revenue growth could be seen in most key items in the period, with 23 per cent increase seen in net interest income and 54 per cent growth recorded in commission and fee income.

“The well-controlled quality of loan portfolio and rapidly handled debts have helped slash the provision cost by 29 per cent compared with the same period of 2016, contributing to improving the bank’s profitability,” the bank said.

In the six-month period, VIB’s non-performing loan ratio was at 2.59 per cent, even as it continued repurchasing bonds from the Viet Nam Asset Management Company to deal with debt collection.

Besides this, VIB’s financial indicators were all good and well complied with SBV’s safety limits. Notably, the loan-to-deposit ratio and the short-term deposit to long and medium term loan ratio were 69 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively.

Earlier, in May, Moody’s Investors Service, one of the world’s leading credit ratings agencies, upgraded the credit rating outlook of VIB’s local currency deposits and issuer ratings to “positive” from its previous level of "stable". The bank also won the “Best customer service bank Viet Nam 2017” award from the Global Banking & Finance Review and the “Most Innovative Banking Brand Viet Nam” award from the Global Brands Magazine. — VNS