Vietnam Banks Face No Liquidity Problem: Banking Expert
Liquidity of the Vietnamese banking system remains stable despite the fact that local banks are in shortage of cash, said the General Secretary of the Vietnam Banking Association Duong Thu Huong.
“There is no problem with liquidity of banks,” Huong asserted, explaining that liquidity of a bank was based on the central bank’s statistics and transactions in the inter-bank market.
The cash shortage is seasonal as a result of the year-end withdrawals by depositors and low-cost loan program launched by the government since early Feb rather than tightening monetary policies by the State Bank of Vietnam as rumored, she noted.
Commercial banks have recently complained that they still faced difficulties raising funds for lending even though they had to raise dong deposit rates to 10.49% per annum, the highest rate allowed by the central bank.
The SBV earlier estimated that total deposits at local banking system rose 28.7% by end-2009 while total outstanding loans were up 37.73%. (Vietnam Economic Times)
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