Savings interest rates of some banks increase slightly again

Interest rates at some banks increase again

According to Dau Tu , Techcombank has just increased the interest rate for deposits with terms of less than 6 months by 0.2%/year. The interest rate for "Prosperity at the counter" deposits with terms of 1 and 2 months of this bank ranges from 2.55-2.7%/year; the term from 3 to 5 months ranges from 2.95-3.3%/year for each customer group and deposit amount.

For customers who deposit money online, Techcombank applies interest rates 0.1-0.2% higher per year than at the counter. In particular, interest rates for 1 and 2 month terms range from 2.75-2.9% per year; for 3 to 5 month terms range from 3.15-3.5% per year.

Notably, even with payment accounts, Techcombank also applies interest rates of up to 3.3%/year instead of the usual non-term interest rate of 0.1%/year.

However, the highest deposit interest rate listed at Techcombank is 5%/year, for Private customers when depositing a minimum of 3 billion VND for a term of 12-36 months. However, the interest rates for all terms at Techcombank are still among the lowest in the system today.

Finance - Banking - Savings interest rates of some banks increase slightly again — Interest rates at some banks have increased again. Illustrative photo from the internet

Similarly, Sacombank's latest interest rate in February 2023 also increased sharply by 1% for long-term deposits of 6.2%/year for 36-month online deposits and interest paid at the end of the term. However, compared to January 2024, Sacombank's mobilization interest rates tend to decrease for terms of 12 months or less and increase for terms over 12 months.

Previously, in early January 2024, ACB also unexpectedly increased deposit interest rates. According to the online deposit interest rate table at this bank, deposit interest rates from 1 to 3 months increased by 0.3%; 12 and 18 month terms increased slightly by 0.1%.

Specifically, online deposit interest rates for savings accounts under VND 200 million are as follows: 1-month term is 2.9%/year, 2-month term is 3%/year, 3-month term is 3.2%/year, 6-month term is 3.9%/year, 9-month term is 4.2%/year and 12-month term is 4.8%/year... The highest interest rate at ACB is currently 5% for a 12-month term, with deposits from VND 5 billion.

However, the highest savings interest rate on the market today is 10.15%/year but for a long term and requires a deposit value of up to thousands of billions of VND. Specifically, the highest interest rate at Dong A Bank is still maintained at 7.5%/year for customers depositing for a term of 13 months or more with a deposit of 200 billion VND.

Similarly, the highest interest rate in the system is currently listed at ABBank at 10.15%/year. The above interest rate applies to savings deposits of VND 1,500 billion or more on a 13-month term deposit, with interest paid at the end of the term and must be approved by the bank's General Director.

PVcomBank also applies the highest interest rate of up to 10%/year for 12- and 13-month term deposits with new deposit balances of VND2,000 billion or more. At HDBank, the highest interest rate of 8.2%/year is applied to 13-month term deposits with a minimum of VND300 billion.

At MSB, the highest savings interest rate is 8.5%/year. This interest rate applies to a term of 12 - 13 months with a limit of 500 billion VND for accounts that automatically renew from January 1, 2018. At BaoVietBank, the highest savings interest rate that customers enjoy is up to 6.2%/year, with a term of 60 months.

SCB mobilizes deposits of over VND500 billion with an interest rate of 6.8%/year, term of 13 months. Meanwhile, MBBank's highest savings interest rate is currently recorded at 6.1%/year for terms of 36 - 60 months (for the Central and Southern regions).

Meanwhile, Wooribank is currently implementing an attractive interest rate package called Won Challenge with the highest interest rate of up to 11%/year for a 12-month term, 10% for a 12-month term and 6%/year for a 9-month term. However, this interest rate package sets a condition that customers can only deposit a maximum of VND5 million and a minimum of VND1 million/month.

In addition, this bank also has a savings package with an interest rate of up to 7.5% for a 36-month term. For regular online savings interest rates, the interest rate is only about 5%/year. At Cake by VPBank, the preferential interest rate is up to 5.5%/year for a term of 13-36 months. Meanwhile, the interest rate for a 6-month savings term is 5.2%/year.

Is bank savings still an attractive investment channel?

According to the Electronic Finance magazine , according to data from the State Bank, the amount of money deposited into the banking system by residents and economic organizations by the end of 2023 reached more than 13.5 million billion VND (a growth of 13.2% compared to the end of 2022), the highest deposit level in the history of the banking industry.

Thus, in 2023, deposits from residents and economic organizations increased by 1.68 million billion VND - the highest increase in the past decades, with an increase of over 800,000 billion VND in the fourth quarter of 2024 alone. Compared to 2022, the amount of deposits increased in 2023 is nearly double.

Thus, the low interest rate environment still does not cause cash flow to shift strongly out of the banking system to flow through other investment channels such as real estate and stocks.

Data recently released by major banks also shows a high deposit growth rate in 2023. Accordingly, BIDV's capital mobilization by the end of 2023 reached VND 1.89 million billion, an increase of 16.5%; VietinBank's capital mobilization growth reached 13.7%, Vietcombank increased by 12.1%.

Explaining the strong flow of people's idle money into banks, Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu - a banking and finance expert, said that in 2023, other investment channels will have more or less fluctuations, especially real estate, gold and foreign currency. Securities are no exception to this fluctuation.

Normally, at the end of the year, money flows out of banks because businesses and people withdraw money for production and business during the peak season as well as shopping and spending during Tet. However, in the context of the economy absorbing little capital, money continues to flow into banks.

Nguyen Tri Hieu predicts that in the first months of the year, savings deposits will continue to remain as they are now. The deposit channel is always popular because of its safety, although the rate of return is not as high as other investment channels. Especially when the real estate market is sluggish, the gold and stock markets fluctuate strongly, posing potential risks, causing the investment trend to flow into banks through savings deposits. Moreover, maintaining a low base interest rate is the premise for reducing lending interest rates to restore and develop the economy.

“Only bank savings, even though the interest rate is very low, is still safe. That is why money still flows into banks. People who deposit money in banks are also “familiar” with this low interest rate,” said Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu.

Commenting on 2024, Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu said that real estate still faces many difficulties and challenges. Real estate prices are unlikely to increase again and "breakthrough" like in the period of 2015-2022. Meanwhile, stocks have not yet determined a clear upward trend, corporate bonds are in the stage of finding the market again, "building an image", gold is also not a safe haven when the global economic and political situation still has many unpredictable fluctuations.

Dao Vu (T/h)

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