Vietcombank
As Vietnam’s embrace of the market proceeds apace, the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises sector, the backbone of the economy in most southeast Asian countries, has become a battleground for eager local banks.
Vietcombank is determined to become the country’s leading provider of credit to this expanding market as it eclipses the state-dominated economy.
Companies and SMEs accounted for 45% of Vietcombank’s lending through 2018 and 2019, three times more than in 2011.
Its pursuit of Vietnamese’s SMEs is reflected in the 22% lending growth to the sector it expects this year, compared with the average 15% credit growth across all Vietnamese banks.
With 15,000 employees operating across 500 national outlets, Vietcombank has targeted SMEs by offering cheaper money. In a market where corporate borrowing rates are as high as 9%, it is luring SMEs with 12-month business rates as low as 5.5%, a point under the guideline directive from the central bank.