During this year's shareholder general meetings, banks are uniformly presenting plans to increase capital through various methods: issuing shares to existing shareholders, distributing bonus shares, and conducting private placements.

Techcombank stands out with an ambitious plan to increase its capital by more than 60%, from 70.8 trillion VND to 113.7 trillion VND. If completed, this bank could ascend to the top tier of the system in terms of charter capital. The implementation plan includes issuing bonus shares at a 60% ratio and additional employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) shares. The execution is anticipated to occur in 2026, within 12 months of receiving approval from regulatory authorities.

Beyond Techcombank, other major private banks such as VPBank and MB also aim to push their charter capital past the 100 trillion VND threshold this year. VPBank plans to increase capital by more than 30% to over 106.2 trillion VND, executed in two phases. In Q2 or Q3, VPBank will issue shares at a ratio of more than 26% to existing shareholders. In the last quarter of the year, the bank intends to privately issue more than 624 million shares to a foreign investor.

MB, meanwhile, is combining stock dividends, additional share issuance, and private placements. This bank is also maintaining a 10% cash dividend to balance the need for capital increases with ensuring shareholder benefits.

At the state-owned BIDV, charter capital could be raised from 70.2 trillion VND to over 99.5 trillion VND. This will be achieved by issuing shares to existing shareholders at a ratio of more than 6.8%, paying a 19% stock dividend, and through additional private share issuance or a public offering.

At Vietcombank's shareholder general meeting on 24/4, the bank also approved a plan to increase capital by issuing a maximum of more than one billion bonus shares this year, priced at 10,000 VND per share. If approved by the State Bank of Vietnam, Vietcombank's charter capital will increase by approximately 10.68 trillion VND to nearly 94 trillion VND, placing it among the top 5 banks with the largest charter capital.

This wave of capital increases is also evident among other medium and small-sized banks in the market, driven by the increasingly clear requirement to enhance long-term capital buffers. State Bank of Vietnam Circular 14/2025, which took effect last year, imposes stricter conditions. Banks must gradually increase their minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) annually, from the current 8% to 10.5% by 2030.

Supplementing charter capital helps banks improve their capital adequacy ratios, meet Basel III standards, and create room for expanding operational scale.

Quynh Trang