The State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) recently decided to allow more commercial banks to expand their credit growth limits in 2018.

The credit quota for Military Bank (MB) has been lifted from 15 per cent allocated at the beginning of the year to its new level of 17 per cent, the Ban Viet Securities Company reported.

Credit expansion was also allowed at VPBank with a rise from 15 per cent to 17 per cent, meaning the bank will be allowed to lend an additional VND3 trillion (US$128 million) in the last month of the year.

Techcombank was the first to get the nod for credit expansion from the SBV last month. The bank’s credit growth was lifted from 14 per cent to 20 per cent this year. As a result, Techcombank was permitted to lend an additional VND6-8 trillion in 2018.

The move is good news for the banks. The few months ahead of the country’s biggest festival Tet (Lunar New Year), which will fall in February 2019, is often the peak lending season but many banks have already hit their credit growth quotas for 2018. At the beginning of the year, the SBV set a credit growth limit for each commercial bank – ranging from 12-16 per cent for the year – depending on the bank’s health.

According to the central bank, only a limited number of banks will be allowed to extend their credit limits depending on their financial status and handling of bad debt. The three aforementioned banks were among the few banks to have cleared all their debts with the Viet Nam Assets Management Company (VAMC). –– VNS