State Bank Inspectorate must "keep an eye" on banks lending at exceptionally high interest rates

ANTD.VN - Although most banks have sharply reduced deposit interest rates, thereby reducing lending interest rates, there are still some banks with exceptionally high lending interest rates.

Interest rates continue to fall, but many businesses still do not borrow

According to the State Bank, the banking industry has recently implemented many measures to reduce deposit and lending interest rates. In particular, new lending interest rates have decreased by 0.6% compared to the end of 2022 and continue to decrease in the coming time.

However, credit growth is still very slow. As of April 20, 2023, credit volume reached over VND 12.23 quadrillion, up 2.57% compared to the end of 2022, up 10% compared to the same period in 2022.

According to the explanation of banks, it is mainly because the capital absorption capacity of enterprises at this time is very low, due to difficulties in production and business.

Ms. Phung Thi Binh, Deputy General Director of Agribank , said that the bank's credit growth decreased in most regions compared to the beginning of the year (only the Southwest and Southeast regions increased).

The reason for the decrease is not due to policy but due to the absorption capacity of the economy , and partly because Agribank's customers are mainly in rural areas, so they are seasonal. Agribank said that it has organized credit conferences and proposed credit solutions to support customers; at the same time, it has actively participated in credit programs such as: implementing a credit package of 120,000 billion VND for real estate, implementing debt restructuring...

On BIDV's side, Mr. Le Ngoc Lam, General Director, said that the Bank's credit growth is currently over 5%. The economy's credit absorption capacity has decreased, export orders have decreased, and individual customers (business and consumer loans), and home loans have also decreased.

With a credit package of 120,000 billion VND, BIDV is actively implementing. However, it is waiting for the Ministry of Construction to announce the list of projects to deploy loans.

“Recently, legal procedures, especially those related to real estate, have been relatively slow, so they take time to implement. Currently, banks are eager to lend, but projects are stuck, leading to slow credit growth as in recent times,” said Mr. Lam.

Interest rates have decreased significantly compared to the beginning of the year.

Mr. Pham Quang Thang, Deputy General Director of Techcombank, also said that currently, businesses themselves are relatively cautious in borrowing capital, businesses do not have new orders, no new real estate projects, no new investment expansion... leading to slow credit growth.

“In the first quarter, Techcombank’s credit growth was nearly 8%, however, it is forecasted to slow down in the second quarter. Since the beginning of the year, Techcombank has followed the direction of the State Bank, reducing deposit interest rates by 3% to create conditions for reducing lending interest rates,” said a Techcombank leader.

Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung - General Secretary of the Banking Association affirmed: "Currently, banks do not lack capital, credit room is not stuck, accessing capital from credit institutions is not difficult. However, with the current low capital absorption, even if the interest rate is low, many businesses will not borrow."

There are still banks with outstanding high interest rates

However, the State Bank's leaders still pointed out that many banks are still lending at exceptionally high interest rates. At the Credit Conference on April 25, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Dao Minh Tu said that while the general interest rate is currently at 9-10%, there are banks that have inflated lending rates to 14%.

Not only did the lending interest rate not decrease to the general level, the Deputy Governor also found it difficult to understand why some banks mobilized low but lent high, widening the gap much larger than usual. Some places have reduced the average mobilization interest rate since the beginning of the year but increased the lending interest rate.

The State Bank of Vietnam has asked banks to explain this situation.

The leader of a bank that is posting high lending rates explains that the main source of funds is from the population, and the term is long, so the input level is high. Therefore, the output interest rate must be high to ensure operations.

However, the Deputy Governor said that the above explanation still does not explain why the lending interest rate is higher than the average. He asked the SBV inspection agency to "keep an eye" on these banks and asked the SBV branch in Kien Giang province - where the bank is headquartered - to report on the current situation and the reason why this bank's interest rate is much higher than the average.

Meanwhile, another bank said that due to the specific nature of the bank's customer segment, which focuses on unsecured loans and consumer loans, which have higher risks, interest rates are also higher.

Another bank said it is in the process of reducing deposit interest rates, although slower, by the end of the year it will return to the industry's common level.

According to Deputy Governor Dao Minh Tu, banks have the authority to decide on interest rates, and management agencies cannot intervene unless they exceed regulations. “However, that does not mean that there is only one market. There are friends to buy from, and there are partners to sell from, especially when banking is a conditional business, and it is not something that can be arbitrarily lent or mobilized,” he said.

It is known that at the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the same day, state-owned commercial banks with a credit market share of up to 50% agreed with the Government's policy of reducing lending interest rates.

Source