According to the latest update of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), by the end of May 2019, the total customer deposits in credit institutions were about 8,100 trillion dong, including 3,420 trillion dong of economic organisations and 4,670 trillion dong of individual customers.
Thus, deposits of individual customers are overwhelming that of economic organisations at respectively 58 percent and 42 percent.
Notably, deposits of economic organisations from January to April 2019 were all lower than the endo f 2018. The reduction sometimes fell by nearly 100 trillion dong, like in the first two months of the year.
However, deposits of economic organisations have recovered significantly in May 2019 with an increase of nearly 140 trillion dong in the month, reaching 3,420 trillion dong. This number is higher than the end of 2018 by about 85 trillion dong.
Contrary to the erratic movements of the deposits of economic organisations, deposits of individual customers have steadily increased over the first months of 2019, showing the importance of this source of capital to the banking system.
The steady increase of individual customer deposits over the month is partly related to the uptrend of mobilisation interest rates as banks need to ensure sufficient source to carry out the credit growth targets, in the context when banks have to compete with the other fast growing investment channels (bonds, fund certificates, etc.). In addition, there is also a need to increase mobilisation balance to meet the roadmap of further continuing to reduce the ratio of short-term funds for medium and long-term lending from the current 40 percent to 30 percent.
In the coming months, deposits of individual customers are forecasted to continue rising considerably because the uptrend of mobilisation interest rates is becoming more obvious on a larger scale, not only in a few banks like in the previous months.
Specifically, in July 2019, many banks have announced new interest rate lists with a popular increase of about 0.2 0.3 percentage point per annum, and even 0.5 percentage point per annum on some terms.
Typically, Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank raised 0.4 percentage point on 18-month term for customers depositing less than one billion dong. Commercial Joint Stock Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) increased the 12-month deposit rate by 0.1 percentage point. Deposit rates at Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank) were raised by 0.4 0.5 percentage point for terms from one to five months, reaching 5.5 percent per annum; while Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) increased 15-month deposit rate by 0.2 percentage point, and Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NamABank) strongly raised deposit rates by 0.5 percentage point for terms from 25 to 36 months to 7.9 percent per annum.
