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| Digital banking operation_Photo: Agribank |
In the context of the economy still facing difficulties and challenges, the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) has managed to proactively roll out comprehensive and flexible solutions to implement the Government’s and the Prime Minister’s directives on prioritizing the provision of support for boosting economic growth in association with macro-economic stability and inflation control.
Results achieved in 2023
Based on the instructions of the Government and the Prime Minister and the business plan assigned by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and the Board of Members (BOM), the General Director of Agribank has assigned the Executive Board to direct Agribank branches in organizing conferences and issue documents and incentive mechanisms for affiliated units to synchronously implement flexible solutions, to best achieve the whole system’s set credit growth goals.
Specifically, Agribank has organized capital mobilization, interest rate regulation, and collection of capital allocation charge under the SBV’s regulations, gradually reducing operation costs so as to lower lending rates for its customers and promote safe and effective credit growth. It has worked out a stable capital source structure plan since the beginning of the year to encourage branches to increase their capital sources in a more practical manner suitable to their size. It has also made 28 deposit interest rate reductions in order to be able to reduce lending rates for eight times.
In addition, Agribank has also allowed its branches that had provided loans in excess of the assigned plans to seek new capital sources as suitable to the practical situation, promoting credit growth and ensuring liquidity safety and compliance with prescribed prudential ratios. The whole system has successfully issued bonds worth VND 10 trillion to the public and several rounds of deposit certificates.
Tackling difficult situations, the bank has maintained its credit growth at a high rate. In 2023, it basically achieved the set business targets, with many indicators surpassing the plan. Its total assets in 2022 were VND 1.87 quadrillion, and reached VND 2 quadrillion by the end of 2023, surpassing the year’s plan by 13 percent, with an average credit growth rate exceeding 7 percent.
Business operation goals for 2024
The year 2024 is a year of special importance in the successful implementation of Agribank’s 2021-25 socio-economic development plan. The global situation in 2024 is predicted to continue to be complex and unpredictable. The domestic economy continues to suffer “double negative impacts” from adverse external factors and internal limitations and shortcomings; opportunities, advantages and challenges are intertwined. However, Agribank always remains steadfast in its goals of being proactive, pioneering and exemplary in promptly implementing solutions to help people and businesses overcome capital shortage to rehabilitate their production and business activities under the directives of the Government, the Prime Minister and the State Bank.
This year, Agribank’s specific business operation objectives are to continue closely following policies and guidelines of the Party and the Government, and submitting to the State Bank’s administration, maintaining its leading role in the monetary and credit market for agriculture and rural areas, and contributing more to urban development.
The bank also sets goals to control latent debts, ensuring the bad debt ratio within the plan assigned by the SBV with a stable financial capacity. It is expected to develop package products and flexible lending methods suitable to the market’s trends and orientations. It will intensify retail operations on digital platforms, provide additional diverse e-banking services to meet increasing demand of customers, prioritize customers that use package services, implement customer care policies synchronously across the system, and raise the current account savings account (CASA) ratio to at least 12 percent.
Agribank aims to implement measures to improve its financial capacity and business efficiency and maintain operational prudential ratios, and regularly and comprehensively inspect and supervise its affiliated units’ operations in order to detect and early warn risks, and to prevent and promptly and strictly handle violations.
The bank will effectively execute its restructuring plan in association with the settlement of non-performing loans for the 2021-25 period after such plan is approved by the State Bank; complete the transformation of its organizational apparatus and network; and synchronously apply solutions to improve the quality of its human resources.
To better meet customers’ needs and management and governance requirements, Agribank commits to continue concentrating resources on modernizing its information technology system.-
