Many banks increase capital, improve capital safety ratio

Many banks have been approved by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to increase their charter capital through the form of issuing shares to pay dividends, issuing shares to existing shareholders, and bonus shares.

Huge capital increase

ACB Bank has just been approved by the State Bank to increase its charter capital by a maximum of nearly VND6,700 billion in the form of issuing shares to pay dividends according to the plan approved by the Bank's General Meeting of Shareholders. ACB will issue a maximum of nearly 670 million new shares to pay dividends to shareholders at a rate of 15%. After the issuance, the Bank's charter capital will increase from VND44,667 billion to a maximum of VND51,367 billion. The expected time to complete the plan to issue and increase charter capital is the third quarter of 2025.

The State Bank of Vietnam has approved VIB to increase its capital by nearly VND4,300 billion. According to the plan, VIB will issue nearly 417.1 million shares to existing shareholders, equivalent to 14%, increasing its charter capital by nearly VND4,171 billion. In addition, VIB will issue 7.8 million bonus shares to its employees, equivalent to 0.26%, increasing its charter capital by VND78 billion.

BIDV has offered 123.8 million individual shares to professional investors at a price of VND38,800/share. After this change, BIDV's total charter capital has increased from VND68,975 billion to more than VND70,213 billion. At the same time, at the recent General Meeting of Shareholders, BIDV shareholders approved the plan to increase charter capital from VND70,213 billion to more than VND91,869 billion, an increase of 30.8% compared to the end of the first quarter of 2025.

Vietcombank will offer up to 6.5% of its outstanding shares at the time of the offering or at the time of the first offering in the case of multiple offerings. The total number of shares to be offered privately is expected to be a maximum of 543.1 million shares, with a par value of VND10,000/share, to a maximum of 55 investors. If the above plan is completed, Vietcombank's charter capital is expected to increase from VND83,557 billion to nearly VND88,988 billion, the highest in the system.

Necessary conditions

According to BIDV, the capital increase will help the Bank supplement and allocate capital to business areas such as credit, facilities, technology, and investment activities; at the same time, improve the minimum Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), especially in the context that the State Bank of Vietnam is moving towards applying Basel III standards in the near future.

After completing the capital increase, BIDV will become the bank with the largest charter capital in the system, surpassing Vietcombank, VPBank and Techcombank. ACB said that the charter capital increase is extremely necessary to add medium and long-term capital for credit activities, government bond investment; at the same time, there is more capital to invest in facilities and strategic projects of the bank.

In fact, charter capital plays an important role as a “buffer”, providing necessary resources for banks in the current context. Paying dividends in shares, instead of cash, helps banks accumulate equity capital, improve CAR and increase credit expansion capacity. In addition to ensuring regulations on capital safety ratio, increasing charter capital is a prerequisite for banks to increase medium and long-term capital to expand business operations.

Recently, the State Bank of Vietnam announced the Draft Circular on Capital Adequacy Ratio for commercial banks and foreign bank branches. The draft is designed to increase CAR to 10.5% (gradually increasing from 2030 and reaching 10.5% in 2033), ensuring minimum Tier 1 capital of 6%, Tier 1 core capital of 4.5%. Total Tier 1 capital and Tier 2 capital is 8%, capital preservation buffer is 2.5%. In case the bank does not meet the CAR of 8%, it will not be entitled to cash dividends.

According to Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, a banking expert, the need to increase charter capital of banks comes from increasing risk reserve ratios, increasing medium and long-term capital sources, promoting investment in technology..., especially improving CAR. It is forecasted that 2025 will continue to be a challenging year for the banking industry when bad debt risks tend to increase. Charter capital therefore plays an important role, providing the necessary resources for banks to cope with challenges and fluctuations in an unstable economic environment.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/nhieu-ngan-hang-tang-manh-von-cai-thien-ty-le-an-toan-von-d288676.html