Resolute Measures to Slash Lending Rates

Several banks have launched many attractive loan programs

Recently, some commercial banks have introduced many new savings products with attractive interest rates to attract customers to open deposit accounts, with some offering relatively high interest rates. This may result in an increase in lending rates. Deposit interest rates mainly rose in some small commercial banks, but the increments were not significant. Some big lenders also inched up their interest rates (seen in some terms in February). For example, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam slightly increased the interest rate by 0.1% for 24-month deposits, while the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) raised interest rates for 36-month deposits to 4.8% per annum, a 0.1% increase after a long period of stability.

Therefore, it is very important to continue to resolutely implement measures to cut lending rates. According to SBV Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha, commercial banks need to strictly follow the directions of the Government and the Prime Minister, continue to stabilize deposit interest rates and work out solutions to lower lending rates.

In response to the SBV, credit institutions have revised their interest rates appropriately. The deposit interest rate tables posted on the websites of banks such as Vietcombank, Agribank, BIDV, VietinBank, MB, VPBank, Techcombank, ACB, Sacombank, HDBank, SHB, VIB, SeABank, BacABank, TPBank, NCB, KienlongBank, Saigonbank and Vietbank in the first days of March 2025 showed that interest rates for 6, 9, 12 and 24-month deposits have been revised down by 0.1-0.7% by many banks.

State-owned commercial banks quoted interest rates of 2.9-3% on 6-month and 9-month deposits, 4.6-4.7% on 12-month deposits and 4.7-4.8% on 24-month deposits and longer terms.

Joint stock commercial banks offered interest rates of 4.7-5.6% on 6-month deposits, 4.7-5.7% on 9-month deposits, 5.7-6% on 12-month deposits and 6-6.1% on 24-month deposits.

Some banks have also announced rather attractive loan programs. Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) launched a home loan program with interest rates starting from just 4.5% per annum and a maturity term of up to 50 years - the longest currently available on the market. The VND30 trillion program aimed to finance customers, especially young people, to buy houses with more flexible and optimal financial solutions.

Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) introduced a VND16 trillion loan package for homebuyers, offering preferential interest rates starting from just 3.99%, making it one of the most competitive options on the market today. Accordingly, customers can borrow up to 90% of the property value which is subject to no limit. In addition, customers are exempted from paying the principal for the first 60 months or five years and presented with attractive credit cards/overdraft limits.

According to the SBV, in the first two months of 2025, credit liquidity was generally guaranteed and abundant and the money market was stable. The SBV continued to flexibly manage open market operations: daily bids for valuable papers, appropriate terms and volume to support credit liquidity. As of February 18, 2025, the outstanding credit balance of the whole system totaled VND15,620 trillion, up 0.02% from December 2024 and up 16.35% year on year while it shrank 1.01% in the same period of 2024. Given still-low credit growth, the SBV’s regular liquidity supply to credit institutions showed that the credit institution system has no liquidity pressure to increase deposit interest rates in the past time.

Maintaining stable interest rates will support business operations this year. In the first two months of 2025, nearly 20,800 new enterprises were registered nationwide, with total capital exceeding VND230.4 trillion. The average registered capital per new business reached VND11.1 billion, up 15.1% year-on-year. Additional capital injected into the economy totaled VND709.4 trillion, 66.1% of the same period in 2024.

Meanwhile, nearly 29,100 businesses resumed operations, a 53.2% increase from 2024, bringing the total of new and reactivated enterprises to over 49,800, up 19.3% year-on-year.

This reflects strong confidence in Vietnam’s economy, driven by the government’s flexible policies on inflation control, macroeconomic stability, and business growth.

The SBV will operate accommodative and effective monetary policy tools to support credit institutions in converting deposit capital into credit capital, with a focus on business investment and development, to boost economic growth, macroeconomic stability and inflation control.

In addition, the SBV will concentrate on closely monitoring activities of credit institutions, operate interest rates in line with market developments, macroeconomic performance and inflation, further reduce costs, and scale up information technology application, digital transformation and other solutions, striving to slash lending interest rates.

The SBV will also continue to innovate credit growth management measures and implement a roadmap to gradually reduce and eventually eliminate regulatory credit growth quotas. Besides, the central bank will proactively and promptly adjust credit growth for credit institutions based on Vietnam’s macroeconomic performance and economic growth targeted by the National Assembly and the Government at the beginning of the year.