Sacombank headquarters in Hà Nội. Sacombank recovered bad debts worth more than VNĐ11 trillion (US$472 million) in H1 2019. Photo Sacombank

HÀ NỘI – Some banks have recovered trillions of Vietnamese đồng in bad debt by selling off assets secured with non-performing loans in the first half of 2019.

According to a representative of Sacombank, the lender has recovered bad debts worth more than VNĐ11 trillion (US$472 million) in the first half of the year, making a total of nearly VNĐ35.7 trillion since it started restructuring bad debts two years ago.

Sacombank is also selling properties as collateral in HCM City and other provinces to recover debts, including land belonging to the Bảo Hưng residential area project and two other plots in HCM City’s District 8. The lender has set the starting price for the assets at VNĐ928 billion.

It also plans to sell land use rights in the city’s Bình Chánh District with the starting price at more than VNĐ1.3 trillion.

In the southern province of Bình Dương, the bank has invited bids for 15 land lots with total area of more than 29,600 square metres. The starting price for the properties is VNĐ897 billion.

Meanwhile, DongA Bank said that it recovered more than VNĐ1.8 trillion in bad debt in the first half of this year. Between August, 2015 and June, 2019, the bank took back some VNĐ16.3 trillion.

According to Nguyễn Văn Du, deputy chief inspector of the State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV), enhanced legal frameworks issued last year had helped banks and the VAMC better manage bad debts by allowing them to rapidly repossess collateral or assets secured with loan money if borrowers default.

Trương Văn Phước, a member of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory group, said the process of restructuring and handling bad debt had brought positive results recently.

According to the SBV, between 2012 and June-end this year, the local banking system handled over VNĐ937 trillion in bad debts, including more than VNĐ163 trillion settled in 2018, bringing the bad debt ratio of the banking system down to 1.91 per cent by the end of June. VNS