Bank interest rates in June: There is differentiation between banking groups

Photo caption

Customers transact at BAOVIET Bank Transaction Office. Photo: Tran Viet/ VNA

Although interest rates generally do not fluctuate much, many banks still offer "huge" interest rate packages with strict conditions, targeting customers with very large capital sources.

Notably, An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank) is listing the highest interest rate of up to 9.65%/year for deposits of VND1,500 billion or more, with a term of 13 months. Similarly, Vietnam Public Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PVcomBank) also offers a rate of 9%/year for a term of 12-13 months, with a balance requirement of VND2,000 billion.

Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank ( HDBank ) applies a rate of 8.1%/year for a 13-month term and 7.7%/year for a 12-month term, provided that customers maintain a balance of VND500 billion. In the HDBank ecosystem, the digital bank Vikki Bank also attracts attention with a rate of 7.5%/year for a term of 13 months or more, applied to deposits of VND999 billion or more.

Other banks also implement high interest rate programs under the "conditional incentive" model, such as Loc Viet Commercial Joint Stock Bank (LPBank) applying 6.5%/year interest paid at the end of the term, for deposits from 300 billion VND, or Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank ( ACB ) 6%/year for a 13-month term for customers depositing 200 billion VND or more.

On the other hand, the group of large banks – including the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development ( Agribank ), the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam (VietinBank) – still maintain stable and low interest rates. According to the interest rate table applied to the form of savings deposits at the counter, interest received at the end of the term, with terms from 1 to 36 months, the interest rate ranges from 1.6% to 4.8%/year.

In this group, Agribank listed slightly higher interest rates for many short terms. Specifically, the interest rate for 1-2 month term deposits was listed by Agribank at 2.1%/year, 0.5%/year higher than the other 3 banks. For 3-5 month term deposits, Agribank still leads with 2.4%/year, while Vietcombank, BIDV and VietinBank maintain at 1.9%/year.

For longer terms, from 6-11 months, Agribank continues to maintain the rate of 3.5%/year, higher than the rate of about 2.9-3%/year at the remaining 3 banks. For terms of 24 months or more, BIDV, VietinBank and Agribank all apply the rate of 4.8%/year, 0.1%/year higher than Vietcombank .

Although there were no major fluctuations in the early days of June, the market is showing two extremes in interest rate strategies. While large banks continue to prioritize stability, high liquidity and sustainable capital mobilization policies, low interest rates, joint stock commercial banks, especially small and medium-sized ones, pursue a strategy of attracting cash flow with high interest rates but increasingly associated with very large-scale deposit conditions, limiting the target customer group.

In the context that the economy still needs medium and long-term capital to recover, this differentiation is forecast to continue in the coming time. Any changes, if any, will mainly appear in the group of joint-stock commercial banks.