According to the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBBank), the bank was on course to exceed its profit target.

Domestic banks are in a position to complete their 2019 profit targets if they finish the year on a high.

Thanks to high profits in the first three quarters of the year, many banks are close to reaching their yearly targets, while others are positive that the busy fourth quarter will be enough to get them over the finish line.

According to the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBBank), the bank was on course to exceed its profit target.

MBBank closed the first ten months of 2019 with pre-tax profit of more than VND8 trillion (US$347.82 million), completing 96 per cent of its annual target approved by shareholders in April.

The Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam (VietinBank) is also confident of completing its profit goal of VND20 trillion.

After recording its highest profit ever in the first three quarters of 2019 thanks to growing revenue from retail and services, it should be easy for the Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) to meet its targets this year. The bank achieved pre-tax profit of more than VND17.5 trillion in the first nine months, completing 86 per cent of the annual plan.

With record profits estimated for this year, Vietcombank has already set an ambitious profit target of $2 billion in 2025. The main motivation for the bank’s growth will be retail and digital banking, of which retail will account for half of the profit. Regarding digital banking, Vietcombank aims to maintain its leading position in the market.

The Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) is also on track to meet its 2019 profit target of VND11.75 trillion having already VND8.9 trillion in pre-tax profit in the first three quarters of the year.

Nguyen Dinh Tung, general director of Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB), also believed that his bank would complete its yearly profit target, or even exceed it, because the last quarter was the peak season. In October alone, OCB attained more than VND900 billion in pre-tax profit, Tung said.

FE Credit had contributed significantly to the Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank)’s profit, ao the bank said it would meet or even exceed the pre-tax profit target of VND9.5 trillion in 2019.

Le Anh Tuan, head of research at Dragon Capital Management Co, said banks’ profits were forecast to continue being positive this year although they still had to set aside a significant provision for risky loans.

Anh explained revenue from credit had remained high. Though credit growth this year was somewhat tighter, the central bank had still expanded credit growth limits for commercial banks, which had successfully implemented Basel II standards, Anh said.

Moreover, profits had also increased significantly since thanks to revenue from services, Anh added. — VNS