Following a meeting with the Governor in early April, banks agreed to lower interest rates to maintain a low overall level, supporting the economy. The competition for preferential rates has become less intense. Many banks subsequently ceased or gradually reduced preferential interest rates for savings customers.

A VnExpress survey conducted by mid-May indicated a significant decrease in the number of banks offering bonus interest rate programs compared to the previous month, with preferential rates also about 0,5% lower.

Currently, a few banks such as: HDBank, NCB, Vikki Bank, and OCB still offer 8-9% for savings deposits with terms of six months or more, provided the deposit amount is from tens or hundreds of millions of VND.

Meanwhile, banks continuously adjust their publicly listed interest rate schedules, with some institutions significantly reducing rates by 1-2%.

Over a dozen banks, including: VIB, VPBank, Sacombank, SHB, BVBank, Kienlongbank, VietABank, BIDV, Techcombank, and TPBank, have reduced interest rates. Conversely, some institutions have increased or made contradictory adjustments depending on the specific term.

Currently, the highest listed interest rate in the system (for deposits up to 1 billion VND) is nearly 8% per year. For 12-month terms, SHB and Sacombank lead the market with rates of 7,8% and 7,5% per year, respectively. Other institutions like: MBV, UOB, VIB, PGBank, and LPBank offer rates around 7% per year.

Transactions at a commercial bank. Photo: Giang Huy

Among state-owned banks: Vietcombank, BIDV, and Agribank list interest rates below 6%. The "big player" Vietinbank offers higher rates than other state-capitalized banks, currently hovering around 6,8% per year. Foreign banks like: HSBC and Standard Chartered currently list the lowest rates in the market.

Interest rates for terms of six months or more are currently not significantly different among banks and are considerably higher than short-term rates, which are capped at 4,75% per year. More than half of the banks across the system maintain short-term (one to three months) interest rates close to or at the ceiling.

According to bank leaders, the recent increase in interest rates is due to the system's "relatively tight" liquidity. High credit growth across the industry in the first three months of the year, coupled with the implementation of new governance regulations and capital adequacy ratios, are also contributing factors. Banking experts anticipate that the current high interest rate environment will persist for some time before potentially cooling down from late QII this year.

Below are the officially listed bank savings interest rates, arranged from highest to lowest (for amounts under 1 billion VND), excluding actual agreements banks may have with regular customers, VIPs, or large deposit holders.

Quynh Trang