A bank teller goes through lending procedure for customers at the Agribank's Lang Son branch. Many commercial banks recruited more staff in the first half of this year thanks to better business performance. — VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Better business performance in the first half of this year has helped many commercial banks enlarge their human resources.

According to the latest financial reports from six large banks, namely Vietcombank, Vietin-Bank, Exim-bank, Military Bank, ACB and Sacom-bank, the number of their employees surged by 2,234 in H1, more than the total increase of 2,112 reported in the entire last year.

Sacombank topped the list with a 5.6 per cent increase or 712 employees added in the period. ACB and Military Bank followed with an addition of 471 and 399 employees, respectively.

Employees' monthly salary also rose by 7 per cent against the same period last year on an average, up from VND15.6 million (US$718) in H1 last year to VND16.7 million ($769) in H1 2015. With VND18.7 million ($861), Vietcombank's employees gained the highest monthly salary.

However, the rate remained unchanged at the same level as last year's.

Compared with the same period last year, the monthly salary of employees in Military Bank and Sacombank came down from VND18.3 million ($843) and VND16 million ($737) to VND17.5 million ($806) and VND15.4 million ($709), respectively.

According to the financial reports, the banks' total pre-tax profit in the first half of the year rose 2.1 per cent against the same period last year to VND11.68 trillion ($538.24 million).

It was reported that increasing provisional funds whittled away significant profits of the banks in the first half of this year. It was estimated that 12 banks, including the ones cited above, had to provide up to VND14.414 trillion ($664.23 million) for provision in H1, accounting for 46 per cent of the banks' total profits.

According to the State Bank of Viet Nam, the increase in provisional funds was due to new regulations related to debt classification and risk provision, such as Circular 09 that came into effect early this year.

Under the new regulations, aimed at helping the Government make an accurate and adequate appraisal of the lenders' non-performing loans (NPLs) to control bad debts better, more loans have become NPLs, and banks need more provisional funds to support the risk of bad debts. — VNS