On the afternoon of September 20, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) held a conference to deploy credit and banking solutions to support people affected by super typhoon No. 3 (Yagi).
Speaking at the opening of the conference, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong said that storm No. 3 caused over VND50,000 billion in damage, and is expected to reduce economic growth by 0.15%. Although the storm and flood have passed, many localities, especially the northern provinces, are still actively stabilizing people's lives.
That situation caused the banking industry, businesses, and people who are customers of credit institutions to be heavily affected by the storm, leading to difficulties in repaying debts and not meeting new loan conditions...
"The latest statistics show that the outstanding debt of credit institutions affected by storms, floods, and landslides is about 100,000 billion VND," the Governor said.
In recent times, the Party and State have paid much attention and implemented measures. The Government and the Prime Minister have directly directed and taken drastic measures to respond to and overcome the consequences caused by the storm.
Immediately, the State Bank of Vietnam also took urgent and drastic action, issuing documents requesting credit institutions to proactively review outstanding debts affected by storm No. 3, proactively implement solutions such as interest exemption and reduction, debt extension and deferral, etc., in coordination with localities to support businesses and people.
In response to the request of the State Bank, commercial banks have simultaneously launched policies to support customers affected by storm No. 3.
Vietcombank has reduced interest rates by 0.5% for customers borrowing capital for production and business in areas affected by the storm, from September 6 to the end of this year. This policy applies to existing and new loans. The bank estimates that nearly 20,000 customers with a total outstanding loan balance of VND130,000 billion will have their interest rates reduced, equivalent to a support level of VND100 billion.
A representative of Agribank (specializing in lending to the agricultural sector) said that about 12,000 customers with outstanding loans of VND 21,000 billion were affected by storms and floods. At the same time, it is expected to reduce interest rates for affected customers at each level from 0.5 - 2%.
In addition, credit institutions have also contributed nearly 40 billion VND to social security work in accounts launched by the Vietnam Fatherland Front.
Regarding the departments and functional departments of the State Bank, they also quickly took action, working with localities and credit institutions to discuss solutions to support people and businesses.
Up to now, the Prime Minister has issued 10 telegrams, and the Government has held conferences with localities to find solutions to overcome the storm.
Previously, on September 17, the Government issued Resolution No. 143/NQ-CP on key tasks and solutions to urgently overcome the consequences of storm No. 3. The Governor said that the SBV was assigned two tasks.
Firstly, based on the provisions of Clause 4, Article 147, Law on Credit Institutions 2024 to report to the Prime Minister in September 2024 on the classification of assets, risk provisioning level, risk provisioning method and the use of risk provisioning to handle risks to support customers facing difficulties and losses due to the impact of storm No. 3.
Second, direct credit institutions to proactively calculate support plans, restructure debt terms, maintain debt groups, consider exempting or reducing interest rates for affected customers, develop new credit programs with appropriate interest rates, and continue to provide new loans to customers to restore production and business after the storm in accordance with current legal regulations.
