After negative growth in the first 2 months of 2024, banking sector regained positive credit growth in March and April. According to data from the State Bank of Vietnam, as of the end of April, credit growth reached 1 .52%, corresponding to outstanding loans to the economy of about VND 13.78 million billion.

According to experts, from the second quarter onwards, business loan demand will increase sharply because the economy is recovering. Many businesses also said that they had orders until the end of the second quarter, even into the beginning of the third quarter.

According to a newly published analysis report by MB Securities Joint Stock Company (MBS), credit demand will continue to increase from mid-2024 as production and investment accelerate more strongly in the last months of the year.

In the context of production and business activities of enterprises improving and export turnover of goods increasing, banks also affirmed that their room for credit is still very large. Therefore, to ensure capital supply for the economy, banks have begun to promote capital mobilization.

In fact, from April until now, savings interest rates have increased in many banks after a year of continuous decline. Accordingly, the latest interest rate schedule listed by commercial banks shows the deposit interest rate increasing from 0.1% - 0.9 p.a., depending on the term.

In addition to increasing mobilization interest rates, banks have also increased mobilization through bond channels to supplement medium and long-term capital sources. According to a report from the Hanoi Stock Exchange, 3/5 large corporate bond issuances in April 2024 belonged to banks.

According to the Hanoi Stock Exchange, from the beginning of the year until now, banking is also an industry group that accounts for a large proportion of the total number of privately placed corporate bonds. Accordingly, the banking industry group with a total issuance value of VND 9.4 trillion (in 2023, the value of privately placed corporate bonds of 400 billion VND), a proportion of 25%. The weighted average interest rate of bank bonds is still 5.6% p.a., average term is 5.7 years.

The acceleration of corporate bond issuance by banks, especially in April, is considered appropriate in the context of market liquidity showing signs of reducing excess, reflected in the overnight interbank interest rate, which jumped to over 4% in April.

Kylie Nguyen