Right after the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam regulated a decreased interest rate from September, Maritime Bank immediately applied this policy. On this occasion, Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Mr Nguyen Hoang Linh, Deputy General Director of Maritime Bank and General Director of Maritime Bank of Enterprises. Luu Hiep reports.
Because of inflation banks are currently facing many difficulties. Might the result of this decree, the decrease of interest rate for manufacturing companies, and the commitment to stabilise the deposit rate ceiling of 14 percent put stronger pressure on banks in general and Maritime Bank in particular?
In the short-term, serious and strict execution of the State Bank directives will certainly impact the profitability of banks, because while banks have to reduce interest rate; they are still under pressure to keep traditional deposit customers. Nevertheless, I believe that the State Bank will soon have comprehensive measures concerning this problem.
How large is the part of manufacturing companies, businesses that enjoy new interest rate, in Maritime Bank’s portfolio? Does the change of interest rate have a large impact on the bank’s operation?
Manufacturing companies currently stand at 60 percent of Maritime Bank’s customers. Therefore, a quick and serious application of reducing interest rate is considered a commitment of Maritime Bank to always lend a hand to support enterprises in difficult situations and strictly implement government macroeconomic policies.
At present, are there many banks applying the new interest rate? With regard to manufacturing and commercial companies, what kind of interest rate will Maritime Bank apply?
At this time, I believe there are about six to eight banks that have begun applying the new interest rate, but each bank has different policies concerning sphere of enterprises which can enjoy it.
If manufacturing stands for about 80 percent of a company’s income, that company can get loan at a preferential interest rate. However in the short-term, merely-commercial enterprises will also be applied the same interest rate as applied to manufacturing companies.
Apart from reducing interest rate, what are the competitive advantages of Maritime Bank compared to others? Do you have any prediction about the future trend of interest rates?
Maritime Bank has been not only developing its preferential credit packages for manufacturing companies, retailers and trade finance with preferential interest rates, fees and exchange rates, but also reforming its policies to shorten the time to access loans and trade finance.
The competitive advantage of Maritime Bank is mainly its flexibility, understanding of needs and characteristics of clients in many kinds of businesses, reformed policies and careful service on the basis of transparent relationship.
The movement of reducing interest rate is clearly a good signal for most businesses after 9 months of ups and downs. However, interest rate of about 17 percent to 19 percent is still considered high, and from the viewpoint of the bank, we expect the interest rate will continue to fall as the macro-economy becomes more and more stable.
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