VPBank joins hands with IFC to finance Vietnamese SMEs

VPBank joins hands with IFC to finance Vietnamese SMEs.

With a total financing value of up to 150 million USD, in which VPBank and IFC provide capital in equal proportions, this is the first co-financing supply chain factoring program that IFC has cooperated with a domestic commercial bank to implement in Vietnam. The supply chain financing program is expected to provide initial capital for coffee exporting enterprises, and in other fields in the later stages, opening up opportunities to access the global agricultural supply chain for Vietnamese private enterprises.

With each organization’s unique strengths, the supply chain co-financing program will bring many benefits to the business community. In particular, with its long-standing experience serving the SME strategic customer segment, VPBank will provide coffee businesses with preferential loan packages in terms of interest rates and credit conditions, and support business connections through a wide customer network.

As a global organization operating in more than 100 countries, IFC, meanwhile, will help connect domestic businesses with the world’s leading coffee and agricultural commodity importers with strong financial scale and potential, along with effective and systematic supply chain management and planning processes. IFC will also support corporate clients in consulting on sustainable finance frameworks, sustainable supply chain finance activities and green agriculture trends, and green agriculture certifications according to the standards of major import markets in Europe and the Americas, as well as key import customers.

Notably, loans under the factoring program will be deployed through VPBank's digital banking platform, while activities supporting connections and exchanges between domestic and international import-export enterprises will be carried out on the bank's online supply chain financing platform, ensuring seamless and continuous experiences for corporate customers. Thanks to its achievements in developing digital banking and outstanding financial products, services and solutions on the digital platform, VPBank was recently awarded the "Outstanding Issuing Bank, Digital Bank in East Asia - Pacific" by IFC within the framework of the organization's Global Trade Finance Program.

With coffee being Vietnam’s main agricultural export product and export turnover exceeding 4 billion USD in the past 2 years, VPBank and IFC’s trade finance activities for coffee enterprises are expected to meet not only the capital needs for expanding production and business, but also contribute to solving difficulties of domestic enterprises when facing strict requirements on product quality, environmental and social factors and sustainable development set by Vietnam’s major import markets such as Europe, the US, Japan, etc.

According to the report “Trade Finance in the Mekong Region” published by IFC and WTO in early 2024, increasing trade finance at reasonable borrowing costs could help increase Vietnam’s import and export turnover by 6% and 9% respectively, equivalent to an increase of 55 billion USD in the total value of annual goods transactions. Expanding forms of cooperation and capital channels from international organizations such as IFC in Vietnam is important in improving capital capacity and expertise for Vietnamese enterprises to participate in the global value chain.

Source: https://laodong.vn/kinh-doanh/vpbank-bat-tay-ifc-tai-tro-von-cho-sme-viet-nam-1365329.ldo