Local banks support customers affected by COVID-19 pandemic

Accordingly, numerous measures have been carried out to support affected clients such as cutting lending interest rates, restructuring debt maturity and exempting and reducing interest rates and fees for new loans.

As directed by the Government and the SBV, by the end of March, local banks and credit institutions had restructured the repayment periods for debts worth 1.25 trillion VND for 259 affected customers. The interest rates were cut for 51 existing borrowers with total outstanding loans worth 216 billion VND.

The banks have also provided new loans totalling 3.12 trillion VND with preferential interest rates for 3,471 customers.

Basing on their finance capacity, the banks offer loans with low interest rates to firms and individuals, as well as other support measures.

Currently, short-term interest rates fall to 8-9 percent per annum, with the lowest interest rate is 3.2 percent per year. As for the five prioritised fields, the short term interest rates is 4.5 percent per year as for commercial banks and 5.5 percent per annum at credit institutions. 

Besides, local banks have actively worked with provincial departments, sectors, branches, units, and associations to study borrowing demands of individuals, farmers and small firms, thus providing loans for them to maintain production and business activities.

At the same time, the banking sector has also accelerated the application of online banking services and payment services in a bid to minimise direct contact with customers during the pandemic, striving to reach the goal of  "three Zeros banking" (no customers, no papers, and no cash). 

Implementing the Government's directions on realizing the dual tasks of controlling the epidemic while maintaining socio- economic growth, the local banking sector has joined hands with provincial authorities to achieve the province's socio-economic targets in 2021. 

Translated by Nguyen Thuy