A majority of credit institutions in the country said their business performance in the first quarter of 2019 was better than the same period last year. — Photo courtesy of Vietcombank

HÀ NỘI — A majority of credit institutions in the country said their business performance in the first quarter of 2019 was better than the same period last year, according to the State Bank of Việt Nam’s March survey released late last week.

Under the business sentiment survey, which covered domestic and foreign commercial banks operating in the country, many banks also expect an upward trend in their business in this quarter and the whole of 2019.

According to the survey, 70.4 per cent of credit institutions said their business situation improved in the first quarter of this year, of which 14.3 per cent saw ‘significant improvement’.

For the second quarter, 80.6 per cent of credit institutions expect a better result. The rate is higher than that in the previous survey conducted in December last year.

A total of 88 per cent hoped it would continue to get better this year, of which 29 per cent anticipated ‘significant improvement’.

A majority of the institutions said the banking system’s liquidity in terms of both the Vietnamese đồng and foreign currencies remained strong and the positive trend would continue in the coming quarters of the year.

About 80.7 per cent predict the demand for banking services will increase, and clients will have the biggest demand for getting loans, making deposits and using payment services.

They expect a growth rate of 13.74 per cent for capital mobilisation and a credit growth rate at 14.51 per cent by the end of this year, with faster growth in mobilised capital and credit in Vietnamese đồng.

The institutions said the business environment for them was improved in the first quarter and more improvement was expected for the entire year.

While 67.01 per cent forecast overall risks of all client groups will remain stable in 2019, 14.43 per cent said the risks are likely to decrease while 18.56 per cent were concerned the risks would increase, the survey shows.

With the risks’ forecast, they expect the rate of non-performing loans of the banking system’s total outstanding loans would be kept at a low level in 2019 and tend to decline against 2018.

With optimism about growth prospects for 2019, credit institutions also forecast the industry’s labour market to see positive changes in the coming months, of which some 61.23 per cent of them plan to recruit more in the second quarter. In the first quarter, 55.1 per cent of credit institutions said they recruited more staff. — VNS