Despite these challenges, the banking system remained fundamentally stable, major economic balances were maintained, and notable policy and supervisory improvements were implemented throughout the year.

1. Credit growth exceeded targets, inflation stayed contained

The State Bank of Vietnam continued to balance credit expansion with inflation control in 2025. Early in the year, the central bank set a system-wide credit growth target of around 16% to support an 8% GDP growth objective. Mid-year, growth ceilings were raised to enable banks to better meet real economic demand. By December 9, 2025, outstanding loans in the banking system reached VND 18.27 quadrillion (~US$760+ billion), up 17.04% year-on-year — the highest growth rate in a decade. CPI remained controlled, averaging a 3.29% increase over the first 11 months of the year, with core inflation around 3.21%, despite supply disruptions from floods and rising fuel and service prices.

2. Completion of “Zero-Dong Bank” restructuring

By 2025, the resolution of problem banks previously classified as “zero-dong banks” — institutions with essentially no usable assets — was largely completed. Banks affected included CBBank, OceanBank, GPBank, and DongA Bank. Under compulsory acquisition, these banks were transferred to stronger commercial banks as wholly owned subsidiaries, undergoing comprehensive restructuring of governance, operations, finance, and technology. This effectively removed a major structural bottleneck in the sector’s long-running restructuring process (2020–2025). Only Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) remained under special control, with authorities accelerating efforts to finalize its restructuring and find a strategic investor.

3. Comprehensive reform of the Gold market

The government issued Decree 232/2025/ND-CP, amending the regulatory framework for gold trading after more than a decade under the old regime. Most notably, state monopoly rights to import gold bullion and produce gold bars were removed, allowing qualified enterprises and commercial banks to import raw gold and issue retail gold products upon meeting capital and governance conditions. Firms must also disclose standards, build transaction databases, and connect with the central bank’s systems. Transactions above VND 20 million must be settled via bank transfer and invoiced, improving transparency and risk management while suppressing illicit gold trade. Regulatory inspections were stepped up, leading to corrective actions and enforcement, including criminal prosecutions for gold smuggling and tax evasion.

4. Reinforced anti-fraud measures in payments

In 2025, the central bank rolled out a Payment System Surveillance Strategy and issued a circular to govern oversight of payment systems and intermediary services. A new monitoring platform — SIMO — was launched to flag suspicious payment accounts and e-wallets. Through SIMO, banks can block or require authentication for high-risk transactions to reduce fraud and protect customer funds. By December 19, SIMO had onboarded 122 of 149 reporting entities, identifying around 596,000 suspect accounts and generating 2.26 million consumer alerts, with more than 700,000 transactions suspended or cancelled, involving roughly VND 2.78 trillion in flagged value. Meanwhile, the industry advanced Project 06 for the use of national digital identity (including biometric verification via the VNeID system) to support digital transformation. By mid-December, over 140 million individual customer records had been authenticated using chip-based national IDs, alongside 1.5+ million institutional profiles.

5. Strengthened legal framework for risk management

On June 27, 2025, Vietnam’s National Assembly of Vietnam passed Law No. 96/2025/QH15, amending the Law on Credit Institutions — a landmark legal milestone for the sector. The revisions clarified and expanded banks’ rights to repossess collateral, strengthened early intervention tools, and tightened provisions for addressing weak institutions. This resolved previous legal gaps that hindered effective bad debt management and provided clearer authority for the central bank to supervise and take early action when safety concerns emerge.

In parallel, the central bank issued Circular 14/2025/TT-NHNN (effective September 15, 2025), revising capital adequacy and risk absorption standards. The new rules move Vietnam’s regulatory framework closer to Basel III norms, emphasizing capital quality, risk resilience, and sustainable balance sheet structures rather than just meeting minimum thresholds.

6. Deepened payment and digital verification systems

The industry significantly scaled up digital identity integration and anti-fraud capabilities. The nationwide application of biometric verification with chip-based ID cards and VNeID has underpinned improvements in customer identification and fraud prevention, a critical step in the sector’s digital transformation strategy through 2030.

Overall assessment

Despite difficult external conditions, Vietnam’s banking sector in 2025 delivered strong credit growth well above targets while keeping inflation under control, completed long-awaited bank restructurings, liberalized key markets, upgraded legal and prudential frameworks, and enhanced surveillance and fraud defenses. These policy advances collectively strengthened systemic stability, supported economic growth, and aligned Vietnam’s banking regulations closer to international standards.

by VNBA News