Vietcombank has slashed the annual dong deposit interest rates. — Photo vtc.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) ─ The head office of Vietcombank slashed its annual dong deposit interest rates by 20 to 50 basic points on Monday.

With this adjustment, the third this year, the highest deposit rate stands at 6.3 per cent.

The rates have been reduced from 4.8 per cent to 4.5 per cent for one-month deposits; from 5 per cent to 4.5 per cent for the two-month deposits; and from 5.5 per cent to 5 per cent for the three-month deposits.

The rates for deposits with terms of six to nine months have been reduced from 5.7 per cent to 5.5 per cent; from 6.5 per cent to 6.2 per cent for 12-month deposits; and from 6.8 per cent to 6.3 per cent for 24 to 60-month deposits. The rates for non-term deposits have been cut to 0.8 per cent from one per cent.

These adjustments are the reference points for the other branches of the bank to set their new rates, and may lead to similar rate cuts at other banks, industry insiders said.

The total deposits at Vietcombank reached about VND390.12 trillion (US$18.58 billion) on September 30, up 17.67 per cent over the beginning of this year, and nearly reaching its target for 2014, reported news website gafin.vn.

Several other banks have also adjusted the annual interest rates for short-term deposits in recent weeks. BIDV reduced the rates by 0.2 percentage point for terms of three to six months, while MB, ABBank and Eximbank slashed the rates by 0.1 to 0.3 percentage point for terms of less than 12 months.

According to the latest report of the State Bank of Viet Nam, the dong interest rates have fallen by 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points this year compared with the end of last year. The deposit rates are now five to six per cent for short-term loans; six to 7.2 per cent for terms of less than 12 months; and 7.3 to 7.8 per cent for longer-term loans. ─ VNS