Business News

The State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) has officially extended a policy allowing exporters to take loans in foreign currencies for another year instead of stopping it on December 31 as planned.

A recent survey conducted by Vietnam Report revealed that finance and banking stocks would be the ones to watch out for in 2018 as a number of reputable financial institutions (FIs) schedule to hold their initial public offering (IPO) next year.

Experts have urged simplifying the procedures to receive refunds on value-added tax (VAT) for foreign tourists. Speaking at a seminar on VAT refunds on Wednesday in HCM City, Dr. Pham Trung Luong, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Tourism Education Association, said that VAT refunds encourage tourism and boost visitors’ spending, but the procedures to receive refunds in Viet Nam was unclear and inconsistent.

A new law is set to ban bank owners in Vietnam from taking up senior positions at non-financial firms, a move aimed at overhauling the banking sector, which has been mired in cross-holding controversy.

Many commercial banks in Vietnam have achieved profit of trillions of dong and are on the right track for the whole year’s target. Tendency of retail customers and consumer loan development takes place at all banks, creating a driving force for increasing profits.

Credit cardholders will not be allowed to withdraw cash worth of more than VND5 million for domestic transactions and no more than VND30 million for foreign currency.

Profits of many commercial banks this year will hit the highest levels since 2012 thanks to rising capital demand, experts have forecast. Financial reports from banks showed that although two months still remain until the end of the year, many banks have already met profit targets set for the whole of 2017.

Vietnam’s economic growth in the first nine months of this year accelerated from a year earlier, supported by robust foreign direct investment inflows and a strong growth in exports.