Business News

In the first half of 2024, tax authorities addressed violations involving 4,560 taxpayers including 1,274 enterprises and 3,286 individuals, resulting in tax collections and fines totaling VND297 billion. With domestic e-commerce revenue estimated at VND1.98 trillion and taxes paid amounting to approximately VND54,000 billion, there is still much room for further tax collection, according to official assessments.

As Vietnam is an export-oriented economy with abounding potential for the development of textile apparel, footwear, rice and agricultural products, the room for cross-border e-commerce development proves enormous, Anh added.

In the first half of 2024, corporate credit became the main driver of growth for many banks. Some banks such as VPBank, VIB and TPBank, which were known for specialising in lending to individual customers and classified by many organisations as retail banks, recorded outstanding corporate loans of more than 50 per cent by the end of the second quarter of 2024.

Consumer finance firms have enjoyed a buoyant performance so far this year after facing a tough 2023. In EVNFinance JSC's second quarter (Q2) financial statement, the company posted $6.1 million in pre-tax profit, soaring 57 per cent on-year, pushing the company’s cumulative pre-tax profit in the first six months (H1) to $12.94 million, marking a 56 per cent jump on-year.

The cheap capital sources have become more important for banks when they have to reduce lending interest rates to boost credit growth, while still having to increase savings interest rates to lure depositors for the past three months. In this context, the cheap capital helps banks reduce lending rates to increase competitiveness while still maintaining high net interest margins (NIM).

Deposits in the banking system are increasing in tandem with rising interest rates, amid a crisis in risky asset investment channels. According to the financial reports of banks for the first half of 2024 released in the past week, Vietnam's four largest state-owned commercial banks hold the highest customer deposit amounts, totalling approximately $267 billion.

The more streamlined process was designed to help boost national spending by making personal loans more accessible to the public, said industry experts. Commercial banks have implemented reforms to speed up the development of additional consumer digital products.

According to a report released by Hanoi Statistics Office on July 29, the total outstanding credit in Hanoi had reached $164.04 billion by the end of July, marking an increase of 1.12 per cent compared to the previous month and an 8.84 per cent increase from the end of 2023.