Banks show positive results for the year

Techcombank general director Nguyen Duc Vinh said his bank’s pre-tax profit in August was about VND200 billion (US$11.2 million), lifting the bank’s pre-tax profit in the first eight months to nearly VND1.43 trillion ($79.9 million).

Sacombank chairman Dang Van Thanh said that in the first eight months of the year, his bank earned a pre-tax profit of more than VND1.2 trillion ($67 million).

With the results, Thanh expected Sacombank would exceed its annual target of VND1.6 trillion ($89.4 million).

Until August 31, Eximbank’s pre-tax profit was more than VND1 trillion ($55.9 million), chairman Nguyen Thanh Long said, estimating the bank would meet its yearly target of VND1.5 trillion ($83.8 million).

By the end of August, Eximbank’s mobilisation capital was more than VND44 trillion ($2.46 billion) while its total outstanding loans were VND34 trillion ($1.9 billion).

Maritime Bank said that it had so far completed its annual pre-tax profit target of VND600 billion ($33.5 million) so that it expected to earn roughly VND800 billion ($44.7 million) – VND1 trillion ($55.9 million) of pre-tax profit for the year.

By the end of August, HD Bank also earned a pre-tax profit of more than 172 billion ($9.6 million), which was the bank’s target for the entire 2009.

Despite the good results, banks said there remained difficulties ahead as the banking industry was still suffering impacts from the crisis.

Techcombank’s Vinh forecast the banks’ profits gained from credit for the remaining months of the year would reduce as the gap between interest rates for deposit and lending was modest. Deposit interest rates offered by banks nearly reached the 10.5 per cent ceiling lending interest rate regulated by the State Bank of Viet Nam.

Banks would not be able to continuously expand lending on real estate and securities as they had in the first half because of the State bank’s decision to closely control the credit, Vinh said.

Therefore, banks’ turnover from credit services would decrease compared to the first half of the year as turnover from credit services represented more than a half of banks’ profits in the first six months of the year.