City banks cut deposit rates after New Year

Sacombank reduced them by 0.3-0.5% for short-term deposits on February 12, with the rate for one-month deposits falling to 6% and 6.6% year for less than VND50 million (US$ 2,370) and over VND50 million.

On February 20 the bank cut the rates by another 0.1% to 6.5% annually for the latter.

On the same day ACB slashed rates by 0.3% for short-term deposits to 6.5% for one- and two month deposits and to 6.6% for three months.

Several other banks followed suit. Nam A Bank trimmed six month deposit rates from 8.6% to 8%, and for 12 months, from 9% to 8.7%.

A Sacombank official said with the State Bank of Vietnam’s message about a possible reduction of 1-2% in lending rates, banks have to cut deposit rates.

They had hiked lending rates due to high demand for credit before the Lunar New Year.

According to the central bank’s HCM City branch, as of the end of January lending by banks in the city had amounted to VND949 trillion (US$ 44.5 billion), down 0.41% from the end of December.