Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Many banks have reported large profits of up totrillions of Vietnamese dong in the first quarter of 2022 thanks to highearnings from services and bancassurance as well as good control of provisioncosts.

Vietnam Prosperity Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VPBank) topped the list withprofit nearly tripling over the same period last year to more than 11.1trillion VND. The record high profit contributed to bringing the bank's equityto more than 95 trillion VND and capital adequacy ratio (CAR) to more than 15percent.

VPBank’s impressive profit was thanks to high income from service fees (26.5 percent)and notably from a bancassurance contract with AIA - which helped the bankincrease its revenue from other activities nine times.

Besides VPBank, three banks - Saigonbank, LienVietPostBank and PG Bank - alsoannounced Q1 2022 financial statements with strong profit growth in the firstquarter of the year.

At Saigonbank, pre-tax profit reached more than 98 billion VND, up nearly 68 percentover the same period last year and fulfilled 52 percent of the annual planthanks to all its business segments gaining positive results.

Accordingly, Saigonbank’s net interest income surged by nearly 48 percent overthe same period last year while service activities also increased by 11.6 percent.Notably, the bank's foreign exchange and other business activities grewstrongly by 137 percent and 189.6 percent, respectively.

LienVietPostBank’s pre-tax profit increased by 62 percent over the same periodlast year, reaching more than 1.79 trillion VND, in which net interest incomegrew by 40 percent due to the rising scale of retail lending and the interestrecovery of loans restructured due to COVID-19.

LienVietPostBank’s net profit from service activities increased by 34.4 percentto 217.4 billion VND thanks to services such as insurance, card and digitalbanking. Other business activities also brought the bank more than 191 billionVND in net profit, increasing many times over the same period.

At other banks, though they have not yet announced their financial statements,Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI) estimated more than ten banks gainingdouble-digit profit growth rates in Q1 2022.

According to SSI, Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) ranked secondbehind VPBank with an estimated profit growth of 92 percent to 3.2 trillion VND,thanks to the credit growth of 5 percent and deposit growth of 2.5 percentcompared to the beginning of the year. The bank’s net interest margin (NIM) wasestimated to remain stable.

Saigon Thương Tín Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) followed with anestimated rise of 40-50 percent, equivalent to a profit value of 1.4-1.5trillion VND in Q1 2022, mainly from increases in operating income and goodcontrol of provisioning costs.

The remaining banks with positive profit growth according to SSI’s report areAsia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), Commercial Joint Stock Bank forInvestment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), HCM City Development CommercialJoint Stock Bank (HDBank), Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB), MaritimeCommercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB), Vietnam Technological and Commercial JointStock Bank (Techcombank), Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank),Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB) and Commercial JointStock Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank).

The only bank that experienced a profit decline in SSI’s report is CommercialJoint Stock Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam (VietinBank). Accordingly,SSI believed although the credit and deposit growth rates of VietinBank by theend of Q1 2022 were estimated at high levels of 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively,compared to the beginning of the year, its pre-tax profit could be lower thanthe same period of 2021 due to the high comparison base. In addition,VietinBank’s fee revenue from the bancassurance deal with Manulife may not berecorded in Q1 2022.

With a positive profit in the first quarter of the year, many bank leadersbelieved they would meet business plans set by the banks in 2022.

SHBChairman Do Quang Hien said the bank’s 2022 business plans would be feasiblethanks to rising revenue from service fees and current account savings accounts(CASA) ratio./.