After hitting a record low in 2022, Vietnam’s money supply (M2) will rebound in 2023 and become an important driver for the recovery of the stock market, KB Securities Vietnam (KBSV) forecast.
Economic instability across the entire globe is bound to affect Vietnam as well. Although economic data for Vietnam shows that difficulties have been overcome, but the fact remains that scores of businesses are still struggling.
National Assembly (NA) deputies proposed closely monitoring assets of banks, bad debts, and cross-ownership between banks and real estate businesses. Moreover, the government needs to be more flexible in operating the real estate market to reduce difficulties for the financial market, as these two markets are closely linked.
Besides interest and exchange rates, non-performing loans (NPLs) are also a concern for banking activities in the remaining months of 2022, experts have warned.
The banking industry has been facing many difficulties due to concerns about inflation and increasing bad debts since Circular No.14 ended, especially the Government's actions to closely manage and supervise the capital and real estate markets. Will this sentiment bring banking stocks to attractive levels in both the short and long term?
A report submitted to the National Assembly for extending the application period for Resolution 42/2017/QH14 on bad debts settlement by credit institutions (CIs) states that bad debts as of August 15, 2017, were at VND541.6 trillion.
Although the results of bad debt settlement, according to Resolution No.42/2017/QH14 dated June 21, 2017, of the National Assembly on piloting bad debt settlement of credit institutions for nearly five years are at a high level of VND380.2 trillion (US$16.44 billion), unresolved bad debt by December 31, 2021, remains high at VND412.67 trillion.
After the Circular issued by the State Bank of Vietnam on debt restructuring, many bad debts of commercial banks have become non-bad debts because they do not have to change the debt groups. Many financial experts claim that this amount of debt is very large, contrary to the number announced by banks.
Profit reports in the first quarter of this year of commercial banks have revealed the huge profits of lenders. This is also one of the reasons why banking stocks strengthened strongly recently, contributing to supporting the VN-Index to set a new high in history.
At the end of 2020, non-performing loans (NPL) in commercial banks were at a very low level. Now, many banks have also finished settling bad debts at the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC). However, behind the facade of an optimistic scenario, banks are still reeling under the burden of bad debts.
Although the capital source for the real estate market has become tighter and tighter, the latest report by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) shows that the total credit outstanding balance of the whole economy is VND8.3 quadrillion; of which, credit in the real estate field is about VND1.6 quadrillion, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the total credit outstanding balance of the whole economy.
The Politburo has decided to give a warning to Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee and head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh as a disciplinary measure for his mistakes during the time he served as Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam.
There have been many proposals from experts in the field aimed to aid investors of BOT infrastructure projects and avoid creating bad debts for credit institutions, while keeping the burden from falling on to residents and transport companies.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) continues to stick with the plan of reducing the proportion of short-term capital used for medium and long-term loans this year, which is considered to be a barrier to the credit of real estate. However, according to the leader of the central bank, this does not mean that it will close the doors and not give loans to this sector but it will only provide capital for effective real estate projects.
Mr. Nguyen Hoang Minh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City Branch (SBV-HCMC Branch), reported to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) at a meeting on January 10 that the city’s banking industry’s capital mobilization nearly reached VND2.5 quadrillion last year, an increase of 13.5 percent compared to that in 2018, lower than the country’s total capital mobilization of 14.3 percent.