Vietnam’s four largest commercial banks - Vietcombank, BIDV, Agribank and VietinBank (the Big 4) - in 2023 accounted for 41.9% of total outstanding loans and about 50% of the total deposits of the country's banking system.
According to the latest data from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), by December 31, 2023, credit increased by about 13.71% compared to the end of 2022, not significantly lower than the 14.18% increase of the previous year.
In 2023, credit had a slow increase in the first quarters, and even saw a decrease compared to the previous month in July. As of September 30, credit growth only reached about 7%.
However, credit began to slightly improve from the end of the third quarter and surged impressively in the last quarter thanks to drastic efforts in credit growth management by the SBV.
Contributing a significant part to the credit growth of the entire economy in 2023 were the efforts of the Big 4 banks, which are four State-owned banks with total assets, deposits, loans and profits that always lead the country's banking system.
Accordingly, the Big 4 banks pumped a total of more than 684.8 trillion VND into the economy in 2023, equivalent to 41.9% of the outstanding loans of the entire economy. The largest contribution belonged to BIDV, with nearly 255.8 trillion VND, corresponding to credit growth of 16.66%.
VietinBank followed with credit growth of 15.6%, equivalent to nearly 200 trillion VND.
Vietcombank and Agribank recorded lower credit growth rates of 10.6% and 7.4%, respectively, equivalent to nearly 122.6 trillion VND and 106.8 trillion VND, respectively.
In 2023, the raised capital of the Big 4 banks increased by 13% or nearly 778.9 trillion VND against the previous year to 6.7 quadrillion VND.
As the majority of raised capital is in the form of deposits, it can be estimated that the Big 4 banks accounted for about 50%, or 13.5 quadrillion VND, of the total deposits of the entire economy by the end of 2023.
Specifically, BIDV in 2023 raised total capital of 1.89 quadrillion VND, an increase of 16.4% compared to the end of 2022, surpassing Agribank to lead the Big 4 group.
Agribank dropped to the second position in terms of capital raising, with 1.88 quadrillion VND, up 9.8% against the previous year.
The remaining giants VietinBank and Vietcombank in 2023 raised 1.52 quadrillion VND and 1.41 quadrillion VND, respectively, an increase of 13.7% and 12.9% compared to 2022.
