With a sharp depreciation of the US dollar against the Vietnamese dong, the State Treasury has continuously bought large amounts of the greenback from commercial banks.
The State Bank of Vietnam and the Bank of Laos have jointly organised a conference to share experience in promoting the use of respective domestic currencies in bilateral trade and investment cooperation activities to prevent external risks.
Four State commercial banks have disbursed a total amount of VND1,234 billion (US$49.3 million) for social housing projects by the end of the second quarter of 2024.
Banks lent more than VND480 trillion (US$18.88 billion) to economic entities in June, demonstrating the sector’s efforts in concretising the Government’s credit goal of 5-6% to the end of Q2.
Taking advantage of the situation where many customers struggle with biometric authentication, fraudsters have impersonated bank employees to assist in biometric installation, aiming to steal user information for illicit gain.
After July 1, transactions exceeding VND10 million per online transfer or VND20 million per day, as well as bill payments exceeding VND100 million, require facial verification, with many commercial banks reporting smooth implementation.
Since the beginning of June 2024, the SBV has approved numerous commercial banks to increase their charter capital through various methods such as dividend distribution, new share issuance, and employee stock ownership plans (ESOP).
Despite low interest rates, bank deposits have reached a new historic peak of VND16 quadrillion (US$628.5 billion) as of the end of March, according to the latest data from the central bank.
From 2:30 p.m. on June 3, the five entities mentioned will initiate the sale of SJC gold bars to individual customers. Starting from June 4, sales will begin at 9 a.m.
The price of SJC gold continued to drop, trading below VND81 million (US$3,171) per tael on Monday morning, narrowing the gap between domestic and international gold prices of VND10.3 million (US$403) per tael.
At 10:45 am on June 4, the four state-owned banks simultaneously announced that the selling price of an SJC-branded gold bar was VND78.98 million (US$3090) per tael, falling VND1 million (US$39) a tael compared to yesterday evening.
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) is expected to sell SJC gold through four state-owned joint stock commercial banks as opposed to through auctions from June 3 with the aim of ensuring market stabilisation.
Many banks have adjusted up savings interest rates by 0.2-0.3% per year since early this months to lure depositors in the context that the savings amount at the banking system has declined for the first time after 25 consecutive month increase.
