Sacombank prioritises restructuring, bad debt handling

Last year, the lender handled more than VND19.6 trillion (US$863.1 million) in bad debts, reducing its non-performing loans ratio to 4.28% from 6.68% in the beginning of 2017, he noted, saying that the bank hopes to reduce the ratio to 3% in 2018.

Speeding up restructuring and settling bad debts to improve the bank’s health are two major goals of Sacombank in 2018. (Photo: Sacombank)

Attention has also been paid to retail sales with total transactions enjoying a year-on-year increase of 20.6% in 2017. The bank now services 4.3 million customers and earned VND2.6 trillion (US$114.5 million) from services.

Minh said that the bank will enhance its competitive capacity by optimising expenditures and expanding ties with both domestic and foreign credit organisations and other financial institutions.

“Bank management will be made transparent with the application of Basel II governance standards. Cross ownership will be addressed completely while costs will be cut off rationally to increase benefits for shareholders and investors”, Minh said.

At a recent conference to review 2017 and plan for 2018, Sacombank announced its profit before taxes in 2017 stood at nearly VND1.5 trillion (US$66 million), 8.5 times higher than in 2016. The bank hopes to achieve VND1.64 trillion (US$72.2 million) in earnings this year.

Sacombank’s total assets increased 11% to nearly VND369 trillion (US$16.2 billion) in 2017. Deposits rose 11.5% to VND325 trillion (US$14.3 billion).