The banking sector will enjoy another strong year in 2018, experts told a seminar in HCM City on Thursday.

The global price of oil has increased from US$60 per barrel early this year to $70 now, and the uptrend is forecast to continue.

Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded the long-term local-currency bank deposit ratings and local- and foreign-currency issuer ratings of three banks in Việt Nam from B2 to B1.

The profits of many banks in the first quarter of this year are estimated to rise higher than that of the same period last year thanks to significant credit growth.

On March 7 the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Decision No.686/QD-BCT with safeguards against the import of diammonium phosphate and monoammonium phosphate fertilisers.

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday upgraded the long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Military Bank) to ‘B+’ from ‘B’ with a stable outlook. Fitch also upgraded the bank’s viability rating to ‘b+’ from ‘b’.

As Việt Nam struggles under the weight of its bad debts, it has improved its legal framework to handle the situation. By issuing a resolution (42/2017/QH14), the first-ever on the settlement of non-performing loans (NPLs), it has adopted a pragmatic solution to handle bad debts. CEO of HSBC Bank Việt Nam, Phạm Hồng Hải, spoke to Việt Nam News reporter Nguyễn Linh Anh about the effectiveness of the resolution.

Some Vietnamese banks have made meaningful progress in the resolution of legacy problem assets, a positive credit for the sector, Moody’s said on Monday.

Việt Nam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank) reported a pre-tax profit of more than VNĐ8 trillion (US$352 million) in 2017.

Since Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) seized Sài Gòn One Tower using the authority conferred on it by Resolution 42 on settling bad debts, several banks have followed suit and offered mortgaged assets for sale to help pay their bad debts.