Positive business results were the basis for bank employees to hope for high salaries and bonuses during Tet 2020.
High profits
Only after the first 10 months of the year, Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) achieved a profit before tax of 10.35 trillion dong, exceeding the yearly plan (10 trillion dong). By the end of October 2019, Agribank’s total assets reached 1.4 quadrillion dong; mobilised capital reached 1.29 quadrillion dong; debit balance to the economy reached 1.056 trillion dong. According to the plan, in 2019, Agribank would achieve a minimum profit of 11 trillion dong.
Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) was forecasted to reach the full-year profit target in 2019 when the first nine months of the year reached 17.25 trillion dong before tax, increased by 51.9 percent over the same period in 2018, reaching 85.4 percent of the 2019 plan. Given this growth, Vietcombank’s operating results were expected to exceed the target of 20 trillion dong in profit before tax for the whole year. Bao Viet Securities Joint Stock Company made an optimistic assessment of Vietcombank’s growth prospects and emphasized that bancassurance and home loans were two of the bank’s important growth drivers.
By the end of November 30, 2019, An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank)’s profit picture was also positive when reaching 1.107 trillion dong before tax, equaling 91 percent of the year plan. The total assets reached 94.259 trillion dong, an increase of 4.021 trillion dong compared to the beginning of the year. Non-performing loan ratio was well controlled at 1.8%.
At Vietnam Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Vietbank), the minimum profit target of 500 billion dong before tax was set by the Bank earlier this year, according to this bank’s leader, had also been conquered and surpassed. At the end of the first three quarters of this year, VietBank earned 429 billion dong of profit before tax. The bank expected to reach a profit of over 650 billion dong before tax after deducting risk provisions.
With the profit target of 800 billion dong before 2019, Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Nam A Bank) had completed the plan assigned by the Board of directors. The Bank’s leader said that in the first nine months of 2019, Nam A Bank reached 574 billion dong in profit before tax. Net interest income and service income increased significantly in nine months, reaching 1.5 trillion dong and 58 billion dong respectively, 25.5 percent and 69.4 percent higher than the same period.
Reportedly, Nam A Bank and VietBank were the two banks that had just been certified by SBV to complete Basel II standards.
In addition to the above banks, Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MBBank) also said that they could exceed the profit target for the whole year of 2019, which was expected to reach 7.3 trillion dong in profit before tax and 10 trillion dong in consolidated profit respectively.
Tet holiday reward
Despite achieving positive profits this year, banks had not yet revealed the bonus for the Tet holiday in 2020. Only Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) had announced an additional one month’s salary on the occasion of New Year’s Day 2020 for officials and employees. Vietcombank and Agribank were planning to give Tet bonuses to their employees when the profits expected to be high this year but had not disclosed specific figures.
An (working at a joint-stock bank based in Hochiminh City) said that after several years of implementing the restructuring process, the operation of this bank had gradually regained momentum when the results were relatively prosperous in 2019. Profit for the whole year of 2019 was estimated to exceed the target of more than 7 trillion dong. Therefore, An had hope that the New Year 2020 would be better than in previous years.
Not only An, many officials, working in the financebanking sector, especially in state-owned banks, were looking forward to Tet bonuses this year. According to a leader of a large bank, with the estimated profit exceeding the plan set at the beginning of the year with the figure of tens of trillions dong before tax, it was likely that officials and employees of this bank would have a higher reward than the previous year.
Although the business results were not as good as the big brothers, the general director of a small and medium-sized bank was optimistic when compared to the target set at the beginning of the year, reaching over 800 billion dong of profit before tax. Therefore, the Board of directors and the Board of Management would consider Tet bonuses to warm the officials and employees during the New Lunar Year holiday this year.
