Bank capital adequacy rules tighten

Under Circular No 15/2009-TT-NHNN, commercial banks’ medium- and long-term outstanding loans must not exceed 30 percent of short-term deposits, down from the previous 40 percent. Short-term deposits include non-term deposits and valuable papers with terms of less than 12 months.

The figure for credit unions is lowered from 30 percent to 20 percent. Credit institutions with inadequate short-term deposits are required to suspend new lending and comply with the new ratio by January 1, 2010.

The newly-issued circular, which replaces one issued in 2005, also provides that the credit institutions must have modern information systems in place to properly manage its capital lending programmes.