Practical policies

Within just a few months, the Covid-19 has broken out worldwide, including Vietnam. It has greatly affected the production and business of enterprises, especially those using loans from commercial banks. According to a report of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, in the first quarter of this year, 75 businesses in the province dissolved and suspended operation.

Staff of Agribank Bac Giang II review and reschedule loan repayments for customers affected by Covid-19.

Amid the negative effects of Covid-19, commercial banks in the province have simultaneously reviewed customers with outstanding loans to restructure debts, and consider interest exemption and reduction.

Nguyen Hoang Giang, Director of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) Bac Giang II branch, said: “Through preliminary assessment, the branch has 10 corporate customers affected by Covid-19, with total outstanding loans of nearly 136 billion VND (5.76 million USD). In the coming time, we will consider applying measures to support and remove difficulties for them”.

In addition to the above move, Agribank Bac Giang II has actively disbursed new credit packages for priority customers to support their production and business, including those serving agricultural development, exports and support industry development, with the preferential interest rate of up to 5.5 percent per year (for short-term loans) and at least 7.5 percent per year (for medium and long-term loans).

The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank)’s Bac Giang branch has a large number of customers who are large-scale businesses. Therefore, the impact from the Covid-19 epidemic is enormous. Vu Van Hung, Deputy Director of Vietinbank Bac Giang, said that since the outbreak, the bank has actively reviewed all existing customers to reschedule loan repayments, consider interest exemption and reduction, and keep the debt groups unchanged. These customers will be considered to enjoy an interest rate reduction of 0.5-1 percent per year.

Currently, Vietinbank Bac Giang has about 90 customers affected by Covid-19, with total outstanding loans of over 2 trillion VND (84.7 million USD). The customers are mainly operating in the fields of garment and apparel, petroleum and transportation. In addition to taking into account reducing interest rates and rescheduling loan repayments, Vietinbank has also waived most transaction fees via the internet banking.

The State Bank of Vietnam’s branch in Bac Giang province said that due to the impacts of the pandemic, commercial banks in the province have rescheduled loan repayments and kept the debt groups unchanged for customers, with a total amount of nearly 80 billion VND; and given interest exemption and reduction of over 35.5 billion VND.

Cautious implementation

According to Circular No.01/2020/TT-NHNN dated March 13, 2020 of the State Bank of Vietnam, in order to support customers affected by Covid-19 pandemic, credit institutions (excluding the Bank for Social Policies) should urgently reschedule loan repayments, reduce and exempt interests and fees, and keep debt groups unchanged.

Customers come to make transactions at Vietinbank Bac Giang.

Credit institutions shall decide on the exemption and reduction of interests and fees according to internal regulations for outstanding debts arising from credit provision activities (except for corporate bond purchase and investment) with the obligation to repay the principal or interest due to be paid within the period from January 23, 2020 to the next day after 3 months from the date when the Prime Minister announces the end of the Covid-19...

It can be said that the negative impact of Covid-19 is not only on businesses but also on banks themselves as many customers are unable to pay loans, leading to a high risk of rising bad debts. To minimize this situation, commercial banks are keeping a close watch on the credit market and accompanying customers to come up with Covid-19 impact scenarios, thus having full information to offer appropriate credit support packages, helping businesses maintain stable production.

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Do Thanh Nam