Strange moves by banking giants amid wave of deposit interest rate hikes

On November 23, a survey by a reporter from the Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper showed that interest rates at state-owned commercial banks such as Vietcombank, BIDV, Agribank and VietinBank ranged from 4.6% - 4.7% per year for 12-month terms.

The highest interest rate at these banks is 4.8%/year applied at VietinBank, BIDV and Agribank, while the highest interest rate is 4.7%/year at Vietcombank when customers deposit for 24 months.

The "big" banks are not in a hurry to increase interest rates but have other moves to attract savers at the end of the year.

Accordingly, Agribank has just launched the Savings Prize Program "Save Today - Get Gifts" with more than 3,300 prizes with a total value of up to 9.7 billion VND. Depositors can participate in the program at all Agribank transaction points nationwide.

From now until March 31, 2026 (or the program ends earlier in case Agribank runs out of prize codes), individual customers who deposit savings of only VND 8 million for a 6-month term, VND 10 million for a 9-month term, or VND 15 million for a 12-month term at transaction points will receive prize codes for a chance to win many big, attractive prizes.

The more customers deposit, the more chances they have to win attractive prizes. The special prize is a savings book worth 1 billion VND.

Similarly, from now until January 16, 2026, when making a 6, 9, 12 or 13 month term deposit of VND 30 million or more at Vietcombank via VCB Digibank or at the counter, customers will receive a prize code to participate in the "Lucky Draw" program.

There are a total of 101 prizes with a total value of up to 4.4 billion VND, of which the special prize is worth 1 billion VND.

Không tăng lãi suất, các — State-owned commercial banks do not increase interest rates but launch promotional programs to attract depositors at the end of the year.

Vietcombank also offers Loyalty points from now until the end of 2025 when customers make savings deposits for 6, 9, 12 or 13 months at VCB Digibank or at the counter.

Bonus points can be redeemed directly on VCB Digibank for shopping vouchers, dining vouchers, phone top-ups, etc.

At VietinBank, there is a special promotion program for customers making term deposits with a series of attractive incentives such as gifts in kind/money and beautiful account numbers worth up to 5 million VND, doubling Loyalty bonus points when depositing money at VietinBank and on iPay channel.

If customers deposit from 200 million VND, term from 1 to 36 months, they can receive gifts worth from 50,000 VND to 800,000 VND. The more they deposit, the longer they deposit, the bigger the gift.

According to experts, it is understandable that many commercial banks are stepping up capital mobilization at the end of the year to meet the increased demand for loans from the market.

At the same time, the banking system's capital mobilization growth is also much lower than credit growth.

According to State Bank data, in the first 10 months of the year, the economy's credit growth was approximately 15%, while capital mobilization growth was less than 10%.

For state-owned commercial banks, deposit and lending interest rates are maintained stably to support businesses, contributing to promoting economic growth.

Therefore, in the context of stable input interest rates, many banks have chosen to increase promotional programs to increase competitiveness and attract savings deposits.