HÀ NỘI — Liên Việt Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LienVietPostBank)’s profit is predicted to increase by 27.4 per cent to reach VNĐ2.2 trillion in 2018.

This was announced by VNDIRECT Securities Corporation in its newly issued report about the bank.

According to VNDIRECT’s analysts, in 2017, the credit growth of LienVietPostBank, listed as LPB, was lower than predicted. But the bank’s deposit growth was higher than expected, so its loan-to-deposit ratio was only 67.4 per cent, much lower than projected.

LPB, therefore, still has plenty of room for credit growth. Experts have raised the credit growth of LPB to 20 per cent in 2018 from 18 per cent in 2017, and the figure for the 2019-20 period is predicted to be at 18 per cent, also higher than the previous forecast of 16 per cent.

Experts also raised their forecast for the bank’s NIM (net interest income), thanks to LPB’s expansion in the retail segment. LPB will continue to promote retail lending, especially key products such as retirement credit and loans to cadres and workers as well as the armed forces.

“These credit products were implemented in 2015, so they are still in the early stages of the product life cycle. However, we think these products are in a high-growth stage,” the analysts said in the report.

LPB has great networks in remote areas so the bank can approach a large number of customers who have never used banking services.

The bank has already been allowed by State Bank of Việt Nam to convert 185 post offices into banking transaction offices. According to LPB, 80 post offices were converted in 2017, and the remaining will be converted this year. — VNS