Global integrated risk assessment firm Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has raised the long-terrm local and foreign currency deposit and issuer ratings of the Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank) (SSB) to Ba3 after four consecutive years of maintaining the rating at B1.

This was a part of the rating actions that Moody’s recently took on 12 Vietnamese banks, eight of which saw upgradation in the long-term local and foreign currency deposit and issuer ratings by one notch.

In April 2022, Moody’s upgraded SeABank’s baseline credit assessment (BCA) from B2 to B1 with a positive outlook.

The rating upgrades demonstrated positive assessments of Moody’s about the bank’s improved economic strength, financial capacity, liquidity and resilience against external shocks.

This also affirmed the bank’s prestige, position and potential to customers, partners and especially international organisations as well as efforts to take the lead in meeting the highest international standards and operate the bank proactively, transparently, safely and sustainably.

The rating upgradation was announced following the earlier announcement that Moody’s had upgraded Viet Nam’s sovereign rating to Ba2 from Ba3.

Named in top 1000 world banks

Being named in the "Top 1000 World Banks 2022" reflects the bank's strong growth and success in the international integration process. — Photo SeABank

SeABank has recently been named in the “Top 1000 World Banks 2022” by the leading magazine in the world financial industry The Banker, reflecting the bank’s strong growth spurt in the recent period.

“Top 1000 World Banks” – an annual ranking by The Banker based on Tier 1 capital and other indicators, capital proportion, assets and profits of banks around the world – has been setting the industry benchmark since 1970, providing comprehensive intelligence about the health and wealth of the banking sector.

The Banker, founded by The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, has become the world’s premier banking and finance resource, providing global financial intelligence.

The 2022 ranking was based on the achievements in 2021 with the leading positions belonging to world-class banks such as ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co and HSBC Holdings.

Being named in the list of “Top 1000 World Banks 2022” was recognition for SeABank’s strong growth and successes in international integration. SeABank has made breakthroughs in all aspects thanks to the effective implementation of a long-term retail strategy that was based on five core pillars including risk management, technology investment, customer development, human resource development and corporate culture.

Currently, SeABank is focusing on promoting the strategy of digital convergence in the direction of digitalising products and services, integrating modern technology platforms with the ecosystem, and strengthening the technology system to better meet the demand of customers and improve labour productivity and competitiveness.

SeABank has reported many outstanding achievements in the first half of this year with its total assets reaching VND229.723 trillion, pre-tax profit of VND2.8 trillion and a total operating income (TOI) of VND5 trillion, representing a rise of 157 per cent against the same period last year.

The bank earned impressive non-interest income (NOII) of VND1.736 trillion with the cost to income ratio of 30 per cent.

Notably, SeABank’s ratio of non-performing debts was reduced to 1.6 per cent.

Besides, SeABank’s financial capacity continued to be strengthened after it completed the charter capital increase to VND19.8 trillion. The bank will continue the roadmap of increasing the charter capital to VND22.69 trillion within this year to focus on implementing its strategy of digital convergence, digitalisation of products and services, investing in technology infrastructure to optimise operation efficiency, improve customers’ experience and competitiveness.

SeABank also received the cooperation of the world’s leading financial institutions including Asia Development Bank which provided a credit limit of $30 million, International Finance Corporation and five international investment funds with a credit package worth $220 million and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) with a loan worth $200 million.