The reason for not counting loans from 18 projects of large corporations into credit ‘room’

At the end of June, the State Bank allowed the exclusion of outstanding debt arising from some projects of Vingroup, Sun Group and Masterise when calculating the bank’s credit room. The project list as recommended by these companies has a total capital need of about VND 752,138 billion, focusing on transport infrastructure, urban railways, airports and real estate.

At the State Bank’s press conference held on July 2, Mr. Pham Chi Quang, Director of Monetary Policy, said the above move is intended to contribute to economic development. These three companies are all implementing key national projects that have great spillover effects on the economy. In addition, this support also demonstrates the Party and State’s special attention to areas serving social security.

In addition to 18 projects of 3 corporations, social housing programs, rental houses, industrial park real estate, export processing… are also driving forces for GDP growth. Therefore, Mr. Pham Chi Quang said that the State Bank decided not to include the additional outstanding debt in the credit “room” so that businesses can feel secure in investing in key national projects.

With such synchronous solutions, the State Bank is simultaneously creating more capital for the economy, stabilizing market interest rates, and ensuring system liquidity. New policies also help direct credit flows to priority areas and new growth drivers of the economy.

Also at the press conference, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Bac, Deputy Director of Credit Department, said that the total outstanding debt of the entire economy reached 19.97 million billion VND, as of June 26, an increase of 7.41% compared to the end of last year. Compared to the same period last year, this index increased by 18%.

Credit to the commercial and service sectors accounts for 70.07%, while outstanding loans to agriculture, forestry and fisheries are 6.13%. The remainder belongs to industry and construction, equivalent to 23.8%.

“Capital flows continue to be oriented to production, business and priority areas, and credit to potentially risky areas is still strictly monitored and controlled,” Mr. Nguyen Xuan Bac informed.

This year, the State Bank expects system-wide credit growth of about 15%. The credit limit mechanism has been maintained by this agency for the past ten years, creating a tool to control loan quality as well as serve other macroeconomic goals such as interest rates, money supply and inflation.

The Government has requested the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank to research increasing the rate of term deposits of the State Treasury at commercial banks to supplement liquidity for the system. Accordingly, temporarily idle state funds are given priority to be used to advance loans from the central and local budgets. The unused portion will be used to repurchase Government bonds or make term deposits at commercial banks.

At the press conference, Mr. Pham Chi Quang, Director of Monetary Policy, said that this policy will help the State Bank solve problems related to liquidity. The biggest difficulty of the system over the years is that the growth rate of capital mobilization is always lower than credit. On average during the 2021-2025 period, the credit growth rate is always about 3.8 percentage points higher than the deposit growth rate.

Updated as of June 15, credit growth reached about 6.38%, while capital mobilization only increased about 4.3%, which is still a difference of over 2 percentage points. “This puts the system’s liquidity and safety indicators under great pressure,” Mr. Quang said.

According to a representative of the State Bank, the loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) of the Vietnamese banking system is currently fluctuating around 112-113%, a quite high level. That means for every 100 VND of mobilized capital, the system is lending about 112-113 VND. The difference must be made up from other capital sources.

However, according to the Director of Monetary Policy, all banks can meet customers’ withdrawal needs and do not experience loss of liquidity. However, the large gap between mobilized capital and capital demand has caused mobilized interest rates to tend to increase, especially from the end of November 2025 onwards.

To support banks’ liquidity, the Government has allowed to increase the State Treasury’s term deposit rate at commercial banks. Previously, according to the law, the total limit for using temporarily idle state funds for term deposits at banks and term repurchases of Government bonds could not exceed 50%.

At the same time, the State Bank has also adjusted a number of technical safety coefficients, which allows a part of the State Treasury’s deposit balance to be included in the safety coefficient of banks. In the coming time, if necessary, the management agency will continue to research and adjust appropriate regulations to support the system in improving safety indicators.