Bad debts at US$7 billion until end of Q1

Total non-performing loans (NPLs) of the entire credit institutions (CI) system until March 31, 2017 were VND160 trillion (US$7 billion).

This was stated in a Government report released on May 22 at the National Assembly (NA)’s meeting.

The figure, which was exclusively made up of NPLs sold to the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC), was equal to 2.56% of the institutions’ total outstanding loans.

According to the report, the entire system of CIs recovered NPLs valued at more than VND610 trillion in the 2012-16 period. Of the total, over 56% were settled by the institutions themselves with the remaining sold to VAMC and other individuals and institutions.

However, the restructuring of ailing CIs and the settlement of bad debts still faced a range of difficulties.

At the NA meeting, the Government submitted a resolution on bad debt settlement for approval.

Following the approval, the Government will instruct relevant ministries and agencies to streamline legal regulations on restructuring ailing CIs so that the settlement of bad debts is more effective.

As per the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)’s reports, after four years of implementing a project on restructuring the CIs system in 2011-15, it has brought about numerous achievements, such as the restructuring of a number of ailing banks and guaranteed the safety of the banking system and assets of the State and the people.

However, because of inadequate legal regulations, there remain obstacles to speeding up the restructuring of ailing banks and settlement of bad debts.

While dealing with weak CIs, SBV found the current regulations to be inadequate.

According to the central bank, the process of recovery and restructuring of weak CIs is difficult because there is no legal basis for applying solutions suitable to the situation. Also, there is no effective financial support to help weak CIs recover.

The law on the handling of mortgaged assets to recover debts still has many inadequacies related to the confiscation of mortgaged assets, especially land, which limits the progress and effectiveness of debt settlement.

Source VNA