Hanoi (VNA) – The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has officiallyapproved plans to increase charter capital of many State-owned and privatebanks.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 20 banks have raced to raise their charter capital in many forms. As of September 30, VietinBank was theleading bank in terms of charter capital, with over 48 trillion VND (over 2.11billion USD).

Banks have been requested to ensurethe capital adequacy ratio (CAR) in line with Basel II standards as prescribedin Circular No. 41/2016/TT-NHNN no later than January 1, 2023. So far, 16 outof 35 banks have met this requirement.

The capital increase helps banks strengthen financial capacity and increasemedium and long-term capital to expand their business activities when the ratio of short-term capital for medium and long-term loans is tightened in accordancewith the roadmap stated in SBV’s Circular No. 08/2020/TT-NHNN dated August 14,2020. Therefore, banks’ race to increase capital is forecast to continue in 2022.

After the first nine months of 2021, VietinBank surpassed BIDV to become thebank with the largest charter capital in the banking system. VietinBank has a biggerambition to lift its charter capital to over 54.1 trillion VND by the end ofthe year.

VPBank ranked second when this bank completed the issuance of shares toincrease its charter capital by over 19.75 trillion VND to 45trillion VND.

However, the ranking of banks is likely to continue to change when recently Vietcombank'sBoard of Directors approved to increase charter capital in accordance with itsapproved plan. The bank is expected to add over 10.2trillion VND to its charter capital, raising the total to more than 47.32 trillion VND. This is Vietcombank's first issuanceof shares for dividend payout since2011.

Previously, inmid-September 2021, the Prime Minister approved a plan to pump an additional 7.6 trillion VND into Vietcombank to maintain the State ownership ratio. Ifthe capital increase is successful, Vietcombank will take the top position in the domestic banking system.

A number of banks with other big capital increase plans in 2021 include BIDV,ABBank, Sacombank, VIB, SCB, OCB, ACB and HDBank.

According to the HongKong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)’s report, the CAR of some Vietnamese State-owned banks remains low. Therefore, Vietnamneeds to proceed with refinancing plans and accelerate the application of BaselII requirements, which have been delayed from 2020 to early 2023./.