At the meeting, Mr. Thomas Jacobs - IFC Country Manager expressed his joy when visiting and working with the Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA) and expressed his gratitude and thanks for VNBA's support for IFC's activities during the past time. Sharing at the meeting, Mr. Thomas Jacobs said that IFC's total investment capital in Vietnam banking sector reached over one billion USD...
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung - VNBA Secretary General cum Vice Chairman
At the reception, replying to the Thomas Jacobs’ desire to hear VNBA's opinions on the direction for IFC's activities in the banking sector in Vietnam in the coming time, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung expressed his thanks and appreciation for the activities that VNBA and IFC have cooperated and implemented recently.
According to Dr. Hung, VNBA and IFC have coordinated and implemented some activities related to the fields of money laundering prevention, bad debt solving, out-of-court debt restructuring, and green bonds issueing... and are doing well in seminars, discussions, and implementing comments on policy mechanisms. These activities are welcomed by VNBA’s member organizations, especially the bilateral coordination to give comments on the ammendment of the Law on Credit Institutions in Vietnam recently.
Mr. Thomas Jacobs - IFC Country Manager
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung added that some current issues that credit institutions are concerned about are: Enhancing the role of financial capacity, supplementing and increasing charter capital; Investment focused on digital transformation, green growth, green credit, minimizing consumption risks, and environmental protection projects; Some credit institutions are interested in ESG standards (standards for measuring factors related to the sustainable development as Environment, Society and Governance); Handling bad debt; System safety, investment in co-financed projects and large capital investments; Credit institutions, in addition to issuing bonds to increase second-tier capital, have started issuing green bonds...
Besides the advantages, credit institutions also encounter some difficulties like credit quality and financial resources. The increasing of non – performing loans is one of the areas of concern. If the real estate market does not show signs of recovery, there is a potential risk of bad debt. However, currently, credit institutions have proactively set up risk provisions and prepared solutions to prevent risks... Assessing IFC's investments in Vietnam, Dr. Hung said that most of them are effective, especially investments in credit institutions.
The meeting view
Dr. Hung hopes that in the coming time, IFC will continue to evaluate and invest in credit institutions that have the ability to develop. VNBA always welcomes and is ready to coordinate with IFC to jointly support credit institutions in a practical manner and in accordance with Vietnamese law and international practices.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Thomas Jacobs expressed his thanks for the useful information that VNBA shared and did hope that the cooperation programs between the two sides will take place smoothly, conveniently and consistently.
