Moody's Investors Service has raised the ratings of 12 Vietnamese banks following its upgrade of Viet Nam's sovereign rating to Ba2 from Ba3.

Moody's has upgraded the long-term local (LC) and foreign currency (FC) deposit and issuer ratings of eight banks by one notch (Vietcombank, BIDV, OCB, SeABank, TPBank, Agribank, VIB and VietinBank) and the LC and FC Counterparty Risk Ratings and Counterparty Risk Assessment of seven banks by one notch (BIDV, Agribank, VietinBank, ABBank, LienVietPostBank, SHB and MSB).

The rating actions on the banks follow the firm’s upgrade of Viet Nam's sovereign rating to Ba2 from Ba3 on September 6, and the change of the sovereign rating outlook to stable from positive on the same date.

Moody's said Viet Nam's credit strength is a key input in its deposit and debt ratings for financial institutions in the country. The upgrade in banks' ratings reflects the Government’s stronger ability to provide support for banks in times of stress.

Besides, Moody's has also changed the rating outlooks of Agribank, BIDV, OCB, SeABank, TPBank, VIB, Vietcombank and Vietinbank to stable from positive. The rating outlook of ABBank, LienVietPostBank and MSB remains stable while that of SHB stays positive.

Amid the complex international situation leading to over 30 rating downgrades globally over the past eight months, Viet Nam is the only country in the Asia-Pacific and one of the four in the world to record a rating upgrade by Moody's since the beginning of 2022.

The Ministry of Finance said the upgrade of Viet Nam’s sovereign rating to Ba2 shows the Moody’s recognition of the country’s increasing economic strength and better resilience to external macroeconomic shocks compared to others with the same rating. — VNS