“With the scale of Agribank, in 2023, if credit growth is about 7%, the total outstanding loans will increase by about 110,000 billion VND, equivalent to the scale (total assets - PV) of a small commercial bank,” said Ms. Phung Thi Binh. According to Agribank Deputy General Director, 65% of Agribank's lending is for the agricultural and rural sector. Therefore, in case the credit room runs out, the bank will propose to the State Bank. “2023 is really a very difficult year for people and businesses. Agribank's credit growth truly reflects the health of the economy. Since the beginning of the year, we have implemented many solutions, as well as issued many credit product packages. In particular, Agribank's lending interest rates are always the lowest among the "big 4" banks (Agribank, Vietcombank, VietinBank, and BIDV - PV). Interest rates are almost not the factor causing slow credit growth, but the main cause is customers' absorption capacity," said Ms. Phung Thi Binh.
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Ms. Phung Thi Binh - Deputy General Director of Agribank. (Photo: Tuan Nguyen).
With the general difficulties of the economy in general and real estate in particular, the retail lending segment of banks has seriously declined, of which Agribank is no exception when people limit loans to buy houses, buy real estate, or repair houses. In particular, with the decline in credit of export enterprises, especially export enterprises in the fields of aquaculture and agriculture, Agribank's credit to these enterprises decreased by about 30% at the beginning of the year, and up to now is decreasing by about 25% compared to the same period last year. "With the above difficulties, Agribank's credit growth by November 30, 2023 has only reached over 5%, while since the beginning of the year, the State Bank has assigned us a credit room of 7.5%. It is possible that by December 31, 2023, Agribank will achieve the credit growth level assigned by the State Bank. We have never been stuck with credit room, even in such a difficult year as 2022, we have never refused to disburse to customers because of room shortage," said Ms. Phung Thi Binh. Faced with the general situation of bad debt of banks increasing significantly in the third quarter, the Deputy General Director of Agribank affirmed that with the characteristic of prioritizing small customers, not concentrating too much capital on one large customer, the bank is still controlling the bad debt situation. Moreover, since April 2023, the State Bank has issued a policy on debt restructuring, keeping the debt group unchanged (Circular 02) which is also an effective solution to support customers. "Currently, we are still controlling the bad debt ratio at below 1.9%, this ratio has increased but is still under control," said the Deputy General Director of Agribank. Sharing about the priorities for green credit development, Ms. Phung Thi Binh said that in the period of 2018-2020, outstanding green credit at Agribank grew rapidly from 100 - 380%/year (from 1,727 billion VND in 2018 to 13,010 billion VND in 2020). As of October 31, 2023, outstanding loans for the green sector at Agribank reached more than 12,098 billion VND, with nearly 42,000 customers with outstanding loans. Of which, outstanding loans for the sustainable forestry sector are about 7,000 billion VND, accounting for 55% of total outstanding green credit; followed by the renewable energy, clean energy, industry sectors...