Vietcombank pre-tax profit down 11 percent

By Minh Son April 21, 2020 | 11:10 pm PT

A woman rides a bicycle past a logo of Vietcombank, in front of the State Bank of Vietnam building in central Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham.

Vietcombank’s Q1 pre-tax profit fell 11 percent year-on-year to VND5.22 trillion ($223 million) as it increased its credit risk reserves.

The country's largest commercial bank by market capitalization saw its first quarter consolidated net revenue rise 6 percent year-on-year, reaching VND8.92 trillion ($381 million), according to its recent financial statement.

Outstanding loans by the end of the first quarter amounted to VND754 trillion ($32.22 billion), up 2.7 percent over 2019-end.

Income from services and foreign exchange activity rose 5 percent and 19 percent respectively. The bank also recorded a loss of VND16.83 billion ($719,000) from its financial investments, a steep fall from a profit of VND45 billion ($1.92 million) in the first quarter of 2019.

While the bank’s internal non-performing loan (NPL) ratio remained at 0.8 percent, the amount of debt overdue by 10-90 days nearly doubled compared to the same period last year.

Bad debt across Vietnam’s financial system is expected to increase this year due to the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, State Bank of Vietnam Governor Le Minh Hung said last week.

Due to the novel coronavirus impact, Vietnam’s GDP growth hit roughly 3.82 percent in Q1, the lowest since 2010, according to the General Statistics Office.