Most commercial banks pledge to continue reducing lending interest rates to support people and businesses facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The content was agreed upon by 16 commercial banks at the online meeting of the Vietnam Banking Association (VNBA) on the afternoon of July 12nd. Accordingly, banks agreed to continue reducing lending interest rates for businesses and people to support production and business.

16 banks agree to reduce lending interest rates to support people and businesses.

However, it is necessary to consider specific borrowers so that loan support and interest rates are directed to the right address and customers who are facing real difficulties.

“Supporting businesses is necessary and cannot be delayed, but it is necessary to calculate the actual capital resources and credit policies of each bank to implement specific solutions in the spirit of cost reduction to continue reducing lending interest rates to support production and business. The support will be implemented from now until the end of 2021,” said the VNBA report.

According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, General Secretary of VNBA, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, banks are facing difficulties no less than businesses. However, banks should not stand aside when businesses face difficulties. “During COVID-19, banks also have to tighten their belts to accompany businesses to survive and develop. Therefore, classifying the correct support subjects is necessary, both lending to the right subjects and ensuring system safety,” said Mr. Hung.

A representative of the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) said that so far it has supported 27,450 corporate customers and 332,720 individual customers with a total new loan turnover of 1,682 trillion dong.

The total interest reduction in 2020 was 3,260 billion dong and in early 2021 was 1,400 billion dong. In 2020 and early 2021, Vietcombank has continuously implemented six interest rate reductions to support businesses and people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a representative of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank), in addition to launching a 700 billion dong package to finance the agricultural machinery and equipment industry with an interest rate of only 5.2%/year, from now until May 31st, 2022, VietinBank will continue to implement an unprecedented incentive program for corporate customers operating in the import-export sector.

Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank) also said it will allocate 10,000 billion dong for preferential loans to businesses with an interest rate of 4%/year, with a maximum loan term of 6 months.

Some small banks, such as Saigon Industrial and Commercial Bank (SaiGonBank), also launched a 900 billion dong credit package with a preferential interest rate of only 5.5%/year, a 2% reduction compared to the corresponding current lending interest rate and lasting until August 31st, 2021.

Bac A Bank (BacABank) has launched a VND 3,000 billion credit package, with preferential interest rates starting at only 6.8%/year for customers with debt contracts under 6 months and only 7.3%/year for 6-month debt contracts.

At the meeting, banks also requested the State Bank to provide additional credit room in the last months of the year so that banks have credit space to better support customers.

According to VTC News