Stock brokerages buy bank bonds to sell to other banks

By Quynh Trang September 4, 2019 | 06:49 pm PT

An employee gives instructions to a customer at a bank in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Tu.

Securities companies buy 40 percent of bank bonds on the primary market on behalf of other banks seeking to avoid regulatory hassles.

In the first eight months of this year banks issued over VND56 trillion ($2.42 billion) worth of bonds, accounting for half of bond issues, Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) said in its latest report.

Around 40 percent of bank bonds, or VND22.9 trillion ($992 million), were acquired by stock brokerages, it said.

Industry insiders said they only bought bank bonds to sell to financial institutions. Data from SSI shows that in the first six months the 18 listed banks bought VND56.4 trillion ($2.44 billion) worth of bonds.

Analysts said lenders are reluctant to buy bonds directly from issuing banks because of complex requirements like credit appraisal and assessment of credit worthiness. Buying from a stock brokerage reduces the need to go through all this, they said.

This year many lenders have been seeking to raise funds through bonds issuance. Agribank last month received approval to issue VND5 trillion ($215 million) worth of bonds with a coupon rate of over 8 percent.

Eximbank announced plans in July to issue VND5 trillion ($215 million) worth through a private placement.

In May VietinBank got approval to issue VND10 trillion ($430 million) worth of bonds, but has yet to decide the coupon rate.

HDBank successfully raised VND5 trillion and plans to raise another VND5 trillion this year.