State owns parts of 8 local banks
After four years of restructuring the banking system, total charter capital owned by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) at commercial banks increased 1.7 times.
According to online news InfoNet, the central bank currently owns more than VND113 trillion (US$5.04 billion) charter capital of eight banks. The figure is equal to roughly 37% of total charter capital of 34 commercial banks in Vietnam.
The central bank currently holds stakes in eight banks, instead of five as before 2011. Besides, it can be authorised to hold stakes indefinitely at Eximbank and Sacombank soon.
Before 2011, the central bank owned stakes in only five banks of Agribank, Vietcombank, BIDV, and Vietinbank, in addition to MHB. At that time, it held 90.72% of charter capital at Vietcombank. The figures at Vietinbank, MHB, BIDV and Agribank were 91.76%, 80.31%, 100%, and 100%, respectively.
The new commercial banks that the SBV owned this year were VNCB, OceanBank, GP Bank. The SBV acquired all the three banks this year at 0 dong per share due to the banks' ailing performance and failure to meet the required charter capital increase.
At Vietcombank and Vietinbank, the central bank currently owns 77.11% and 64.46% of the banks' VND26.65 trillion (US$1.189 billion) and VND37.234 trillion (US$1.66 billion) charter capital, respectively. Its ownership at BIDV is nearly VND30 trillion (US$1.339 billion) or 95.28% of the bank's total charter capital.
The central bank also holds 100% charter capital or VND28.72 trillion (US$1.28 billion) of Agribank besides VND10 trillion (US$446.42 million) total charter capital of Ocean Bank, GP Bank and CB Bank. After four years under restructuring, the number of commercial banks in Vietnam reduced by 17 to 34.