The State Bank of Vietnam has warned the Techcombank as the commercial bank increased its deposit interest rates to 17% on Dec. 8-10.
State Bank inspectors issued its warning to Techcombank chairman Ho Hung Anh and chief executive officer Nguyen Duc Vinh on December 13.
An interest rate war was sparked off by Techcombank when it hiked the maximum rate to 17% per year plus a 0.6% bonus, which will apply from 8-10 December with deposits of more than VND100 million.
As soon as this happened, other joint stock banks, also increase their interest rates to 17.5 and 18 percent a year.
The central bank has blamed Techcombank for arbitrarily hiking the rate, causing disorder in the financial and monetary markets. It ordered the violating banks to ‘roll back’ the hike immediately.
However, some of Techcombank branches have not strictly followed this order and have continued to maintain high interest rates, under several different forms.
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