Savings interest rates have not stopped falling

Most recently, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) has just announced a new deposit interest rate schedule, reducing interest rates for all deposit terms by 0.1 - 0.2%/year.

Currently, BIDV has adjusted the interest rate for 1-2 month term deposits down from 1.9%/year to 1.7%/year; 6-9 month term down from 3.2%/year to 3%/year; 12-18 month term down from 4.8%/year to 4.7%/year; 24-36 month term down from 5%/year to 4.8%/year.

After this adjustment, the highest mobilization interest rate at BIDV has dropped below 5%/year, equivalent to the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam (Agribank) and the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank).

Specifically, at Agribank, the interest rate for 1-month term is currently 1.6%/year; 3-5 month term is 1.9%/year; 6-9 month term is 3%/year; and 12-month term or more is 4.7%/year.

At Vietcombank, the interest rate for 1-2 month term is 1.7%/year; 3-month term is 2%/year; 6-9 month term is 3%/year; and 12-month term or more is 4.7%/year.

Thus, in the group of "Big 4" banks, only Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) has listed the highest interest rate at 5%/year for term deposits of 24 months or more. Interest rates for other terms at VietinBank are also currently 0.1 - 0.2%/year higher than the above 3 banks.

The trend of reducing deposit interest rates also appeared at many other banks such as Prosperity and Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (PGBank), Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB), Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB)...

At PGBank, savings interest rates have decreased by 0.3%/year for 1-3 month terms to between 2.6-3%/year. Interest rates for 12, 13 and 18 month terms have also decreased similarly, to between 4.3-4.8%/year. Interest rates for 6-9 month terms have decreased by 0.1%/year to 4%/year.

At MB, interest rates for all terms have decreased by 0.1 - 0.2%/year compared to before. Currently, MB applies interest rates of 2.3 - 2.5%/year for deposits of 1-3 months; 3.5 - 3.6%/year for deposits of 6-9 months; 4.6 - 4.7%/year for deposits of 12-18 months. The highest interest rate at MB is 5.6%/year for terms of 24-60 months.

At ACB, the 12-month deposit interest rate decreased by 0.1%/year to 4.7 - 4.85%/year depending on the deposit balance under 200 million VND, from 200 million VND to 1 billion VND or from 1 billion VND to under 5 billion VND.

Similarly, SCB also reduced the interest rate for many terms to almost the lowest level in the market. Accordingly, the interest rate for online deposits with terms of 1-2 months decreased to 1.65%/year; for terms of 3-5 months decreased to 1.95%/year. These rates are only 0.05%/year higher than the interest rate for the same term at Agribank.

Besides, some banks still apply special interest rate policies for large deposits such as Vietnam Public Joint Stock Commercial Bank (PVcomBank), An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank), Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB)...

Among these, the highest interest rate is up to 10%/year, applied to deposit accounts of VND2,000 billion or more at PVcomBank. Next is the interest rate of up to 9.65%/year at ABBank, applied to deposits of VND1,500 billion or more, term of 13 months, interest at the end of the term and must be approved by the General Director. MSB applies an interest rate of 8.5%/year for customers depositing for a term of 12 - 13 months, with a balance of VND500 billion or more.

Although deposit interest rates have continuously decreased and decreased sharply throughout the past year, the amount of bank deposits is still very large. According to data from the State Bank, credit growth in the first two months of 2024 decreased compared to the end of 2023 while the amount of deposits reached 14 million billion VND, continuing to set a new record.

Statistics from the State Bank show that up to now, the average deposit interest rate of new transactions of commercial banks is at 3.3%/year, down 0.2%/year compared to the end of 2023; the average lending interest rate of new loans is at 6.4%/year, down 0.7%/year compared to the end of 2023, but the interest rate for outstanding loans is still high.

According to financial and banking expert Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, deposit interest rates at banks may continue to fall, at least in the first quarter of the year, to create room for further reductions in lending rates to help restore and develop the economy. By the second half of 2024, the situation may reverse.

Sharing the same view, economic expert Associate Professor Dr. Dinh Trong Thinh expects savings interest rates to continue to remain stable at a low level because the demand for capital mobilization as well as credit demand in the first months of the year is not high.

"Although deposit interest rates are unlikely to decrease further, lending interest rates still have room to decrease further. Later, when production and business activities improve and capital demand increases, bank interest rates may also increase for both deposits and loans," Mr. Thinh assessed.

Faced with the continuous decline in bank interest rates, analysts from Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC) believe that the need to find other profitable assets to replace savings deposits may increase.

However, many opinions say that in the context of the difficult economy, other investment channels such as real estate, stocks... have not really improved, so saving money in the bank is still one of the safe investment channels for many people.

Source