Banks begin to lower interest rates on old loans
Yesterday (July 11), many commercial banks announced to reduce interest rates on old loans according to the request of the Governor of the State Bank. By July 11, the following banks: Vietnam Foreign Trade Bank (Vietcombank), Vietnam Industry and Trade Bank (VietinBank), Saigon - Hanoi Bank (SHB) announced to implement the plan to adjust interest rates on old loans.
At VietinBank, interest rates on all loans will be lowered to a maximum of 15%/year from July 15.
SHB will also make adjustments to all old loans currently having interest rates above 15%/year, regardless of whether they are individual or corporate customers, regardless of the sector. This adjustment will be made to loans that are due for adjustment and those that are not yet due for adjustment.
Mr. Nguyen Van Le, General Director of SHB, said that during the adjustment process, 15%/year will be the maximum, and according to internal credit ratings, there will be some amounts that will be reduced below 15%/year.
Regarding the impact of this adjustment, Mr. Le said that it will certainly reduce profits, but this is the time to implement it.
“It will certainly affect the bank’s profits. Since the beginning of the year, the ceiling interest rate on deposits has been 14% per year, and long-term deposits that have not yet matured have forced the bank to continue to fulfill its obligation to pay interest on deposits. However, the bank’s operations always go hand in hand with businesses, and when businesses are in difficulty, the bank’s operations will be affected. During this period, the bank’s operations are no longer focused on profits, but on putting safety first and increasing support for businesses, so that when businesses operate safely, the bank will be safe,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Le.
As reported, on July 7, at the conference to review banking activities and deploy tasks for the last 6 months of 2012, Governor of the State Bank Nguyen Van Binh requested commercial banks to continue to actively review to bring previous loans to interest rates below 15%. New loans must comply with regulations on interest rates.
According to (Chinhphu.vn)-LT
