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  • Citizens’ deposits at banks reach new record high

    Citizens’ deposits at banks reach new record high

    Citizens’ deposits reached a new historic peak of VND6.676 quadrillion (US$262.2 billion) as of the end of March, according to the State Bank of Vietnam.

    This marked a 2.2% growth from the end of 2023.

    Meanwhile, corporate deposits fell 3.1% to VND6.6 quadrillion in the same period .

    After a period of declining interest rates that began last March, many banks have started to raise deposit interest rates since May.

    Analysts expect a rise in deposit interest rates by 0.5 to 1 percentage point, reaching around 7% per year in the year’s second half.

    However, the rates are unlikely to return to the high levels seen at the end of 2022, following a bank-run incident that resulted in a private lender being placed under central bank control.

    Credit growth has only reached 2.4% this year, failing to meet the targets of 5% for the first half and 15% for the entire year, which analysts attribute to a sluggish real estate market.

    The local real estate sector has experienced a significant downturn, leading to major developers facing challenges in repaying debt, including bond interest and principal, due to liquidity constraints and decreasing property values.

    The situation escalated at the end of 2022, following the arrest of Truong My Lan, Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat group, who is on death row for multiple financial frauds.

    The arrest was part of Vietnam’s anti-corruption campaign, which intensified in late 2021.

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  • Banks overwhelmed, unable to meet gold demand

    Banks overwhelmed, unable to meet gold demand

    Gold buyers rushed to banks early Tuesday morning to get queue tokens but many had to leave empty-handed since there were too many people.

    Nam arrived at a branch of Vietcombank in Hanoi at 7 a.m. but minutes after opening the bank said it could no longer receive more customers. “The bank took in only 40 customers and told the rest to come back tomorrow,” he said.

    On Monday he received token number 122 but only 20 people were able to buy. A staff member took his contact details and asked him to come back to buy, but when he did another told him that all scheduled purchases had been canceled and he had to queue again. Another Hanoi resident, Hoa, visited a bank for the second time on the morning but could not buy. “There was no priority for those who had queued the previous day”, she said. “We all had to queue again.”

    Since Monday the four state-owned lenders Agribank, BIDV, Vietcombank, and VietinBank saw a surge in number of customers after the State Bank of Vietnam began to distribute gold through them.

    A deputy CEO of one of the four banks, who asked to be anonymous, said that the number of buyers has exceeded the anticipation of the banks. He said that every transaction takes a long time because customers have to fill in several forms to prevent money laundering. As the banks filled up, some left to buy at stores of Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC), the state-owned gold distributor.

    But by 10.30 a.m. all SJC stores in Hanoi had run out of bullion. The situation was no better in HCMC. At an SJC store in District 3, the parking lot was full by 9.30 a.m. as customers filled up the facility. After 45 minutes of distributing tokens, the store had 300 people waiting in the queue.

    The store limited each person to one tael of 37.5 grams or 1.2 ounces. The state-owned lenders sell gold at the same prices as SJC. Saigon Jewelry Company gold bar prices dropped 1.25% to VND78.98 million ($3,107.00) per tael Tuesday morning, a three-month low.

  • UBS Asia Job Cuts Show What Switzerland Faces

    UBS Asia Job Cuts Show What Switzerland Faces

    It is a year since the government and regulators forced UBS to rescue Credit Suisse. The recent news of job cuts in Asia makes it very clear what could be just around the corner for the domestic financial hubs.

    UBS is cutting about 70 jobs in Asia, according to various media reports on Thursday. Most of the redundancies are taking place in Singapore and Hong Kong.

    The step also ostensibly affects the bank’s core Global Wealth Management (GWM) business even though the number of employees has been growing steadily in that region since 2022. But as UBS reported in February, the Asia Pacific made significantly less money in the fourth quarter of last year. Pre-tax profit fell by 46 percent to $97 million compared to the same period a year earlier. At the same time, the cost-income ratio rose to 87.7 percent.

    That is in itself remarkable. Besides the US, Asia is a strategic growth market for the bank. Both regions are integral to its future financial success and key to its investment growth story with UBS making large investments in both markets in recent years. The results are there for everyone to see, particularly after integrating Credit Suisse’s business. There is no other bank in Asia that has such a large wealth management business with such high levels of invested assets.

    At the end of 2022, before the forced takeover of Credit Suisse, about 16,500 individuals worked at UBS in Asia Pacific. At the time, that was 22 percent of the group’s entire workforce.

    The current job cuts are likely due to plain economics. But they also have to be seen in the context of a wider restructuring. This has now started just about a year after the government and regulators forced UBS to take over its former rival and Switzerland’s second-largest bank. That is also exactly what the bank announced in February.

    Singapore, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg come first, followed by Switzerland afterward, an order of events that is expected to hold up over the next few years.

    We got a taste of that this year. In April, the bank will start consolidating its branch network with that of Credit Suisse’s domestic business. About 85 branches belonging to both will be impacted by the consolidation. What is currently happening in Singapore and Hong Kong shows what can be expected in Switzerland very soon.

    Moreover, when following the UBS schedule step-by-step, it is clear that the domestic market is to see very significant disruption.

    The integration of the franchises of the country’s two largest banks will change the financial hub sustainably and substantively. And it will be on a scale that we can’t yet really imagine. With that, the fact that UBS’s management is not wasting any time should be welcomed. The sooner the process is completed, the sooner the bank can concentrate on its actual job. Focusing on doing business with clients.

    As part of that, it will be this exact core business experiencing the current round of cuts that will determine the success of its efforts to become a wealth management powerhouse – both in Asia and Switzerland.

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  • Digital Banking Specialist Adnovum Secures AI Expertise

    Digital Banking Specialist Adnovum Secures AI Expertise

    IT consulting firm Adnovum has joined forces with a Swiss artificial intelligence specialist. The partners want to use the technology of the future to transform the financial sector.

    Adnovum and Squirro have embarked upon a strategic partnership, as we learned in a press release on Wednesday. The aim of this cooperation? To use Squirro’s artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing, and retrieval augmented generation technologies to enhance the digital solutions offered by Adnovum.

    Together, the two companies want to launch new offers which will transform the banking and insurance sectors, as they promoted in the press release.

    The cooperation will focus on the Swiss and Singapore markets. There, the new AI solutions are intended to go beyond the conventional digital transformation and complement human intelligence. Processes in service management and client engagement are particular focus points.

    In recent years, Adnovum has made a name for itself in digitizing the Swiss financial center, and also has a presence in Asia. Squirro was founded in 2012 and is a fast-growing company with teams in Switzerland, the United States, the U.K., and Singapore. Clients of the AI specialist include the European Central Bank and the Bank of England.

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  • Banks see massive layoffs

    Banks see massive layoffs

    Faced with difficulties that are expected to linger, large western banks are slashing costs by downsizing their payrolls and increasing the use of artificial intelligence.

    Deutsche Bank has said it is laying off 3,500 employees, or 4% of its workforce, to reduce costs by 2.5 billion euros (US$2.7 billion) a year by 2025.

    One of the ways the German lender has chosen to cut costs is to promote “simplified workflows and automation,” and so most of the jobs will be shed in the back office. Its pre-tax net profit fell by 14% last year to 4.9 billion euros ($5.3 billion).

    Deutsche Bank is the latest of a number of lenders to announce layoffs in recent months. UBS is cutting 3,000 jobs in Switzerland, where it is headquartered.

    Citibank, the third largest American bank, last month said it would cut 20,000 jobs in the next two years, equivalent to 10% of its global workforce, to save $2.5 billion in the long term.

    January was also when the U.S. financial industry laid off the most workers, 23,238, since Sept. 2018, according to a report by recruitment company Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

    The layoff announcements continue in early 2024 amid massive downsizing by the global financial industry.

    Major banks around the world axed more than 60,000 jobs in 2023, among the highest in a year since the financial crisis.

    Citibank started sacking workers in November 2023.

    In the U.K., a number of lenders, including Barclays, Lloyds and Metro Bank, announced staff reduction at around the same time.

    Some banks cited increased automation and the use of artificial intelligence as reasons to reduce their payroll.
    Lloyds is eliminating certain roles and only hiring data and technology personnel.

    The downsizing is also intended to prepare for a more difficult business environment as rising interest rates impact the economy.

    Deutsche Bank said it had increased provisions for potential bad debts by 300 million euros to 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in 2023, which reflected “the continued challenging impact of macro-economic and interest rate conditions.

    Investment banks, which had to slash wage costs last year, are expected to continue downsizing.

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  • Dollar steps up over dong

    Dollar steps up over dong

    The U.S. dollar rose against the Vietnamese dong Wednesday morning.

    Vietcombank sold the dollar at VND24,570, up 0.16% from Tuesday.

    It fell 0.40% to VND24,850 on the black market.

    The greenback has increased by 0.61% against the dong since the beginning of the year.

    Globally the dollar remained under pressure on Wednesday after retreating from a nearly three-month high against the euro in the previous session with a decline in U.S. bond yields adding to the drag.

    Analysts pointed to technical factors for the dollar’s pullback, following a two-day rally of as much as 1.4% against the euro after unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs data and more hawkish rhetoric from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell scuppered bets for an early interest rate cut.

    The U.S. dollar index – which measures the currency against six major peers, including the euro – was flat at 104.14 after Tuesday’s 0.29% slide. On Monday, it had reached its highest since Nov. 14 at 104.60.

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  • National Citizen Bank to double charter capital with private placement

    National Citizen Bank to double charter capital with private placement

    National Citizen Bank (NCB) has approved a private placement to issue 620 million new shares in 2024 to double its capital.

    The issuance is scheduled for the second quarter. The issued shares will be blocked from trading for one year.

    If the plan succeeds, NCB’s charter capital will rise from VND5.6 trillion to VND11.8 trillion ($213 million to 487 million).

    NCB has for years been among the banks with the lowest amount of capital in Vietnam.

    The minimum charter capital requirement in the country is VND3 trillion. Household appliance maker Sun Group became a shareholder in the bank last year.

    NCB is in the process of restructuring. It has a bad debt ratio of more than 3%.

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  • Citi organizes Vietnam Digital Leaders Summit 2023

    Citi organizes Vietnam Digital Leaders Summit 2023

    Citi brought together about 100 leaders in the Vietnam technology landscape, including founders, management teams, and investors, to discuss how the new economy is shaping the future of Vietnam.

    The Vietnam Digital Leaders Summit 2023, hosted by Citi Commercial Bank (CCB) and Citi’s Investment Bank, featured keynote speeches and lively panel discussions covering various topics, from scale-up journeys and macroeconomic challenges to fundraising strategies.

    Speakers and panels also touched on investor perspectives on opportunities in Vietnam and stories on the strategic shift in focus from exponential growth to sustainable profitability. Many speakers addressed the opportunities and pitfalls of harnessing AI throughout the day.

    Shervone Saw, CCB’s Asia Digital Head, highlighted that Citi established its technology industry vertical eight years ago to support the startup ecosystem. The unit supports technology startups from infancy to maturity, offering customized solutions for every step of the journey.

    Citi’s global network powers companies as they expand into new geographies. Citi is a pioneer in the technology industry in Vietnam, witnessing the rapid rise of companies to the unicorn stage.

    At the event, James Perry, APAC Co-Head of TMT Investment Banking, showed that in 2023, private investment into technology companies in Southeast Asia is on track to surpass pre-Covid levels, despite substantial declines from the peak levels in 2021.

    “We understand the importance of having a structured and dedicated approach to support the demands of fast-growing tech firms, particularly in a low-growth and volatile macro-environment. Our goal is to work with clients to form a winning strategy, to achieve new milestones, and to help them deliver their strategic objectives,” said Lin Hsiu-Yi, ASEAN & Singapore Head of Citi Commercial Bank.

    In Vietnam, Citi has supported and served clients for nearly three decades, helping them navigate the opportunities and challenges of rapid growth and international expansion by enabling them to scale faster.

    This flagship event served as a platform for engagement, connection, and exploration of new growth opportunities for clients, investors, industry veterans, and the Citi team.

    “Whether clients are considering expansion, exploring partnerships, or seeking strategic financing, our dedicated team is ready to support their needs and enable their businesses to get into the next phase of growth,” said Ramachandran A.S., Vietnam Citi Country Officer.

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  • UBS Faces Pressure on Costs

    UBS Faces Pressure on Costs

    The dust has settled since Switzerland’s largest bank announced it would completely integrate all of Credit Suisse. The third quarter is likely to slip by far more quietly even though it still faces stiff challenges.

    The usual UBS earnings figures are expected to be in the spotlight on November 7. Revenues, inflows of new money, costs, and net profit will be the metrics by which many measure how the integration with Credit Suisse is going.

    The number of significant extraordinary items booked in the first half has also led many to assume that much has since been cleared out of the way. All in all, it was likely the usual kitchen sinking exercise to set a clean slate before really getting down to work.

    What is almost certain to be a matter of sharper focus are the inflows of net new money in September. The figures are not expected to be that surprising given that UBS previously communicated the trends it was seeing in the first two months of the quarter at the end of August. At the time, it had recorded about $8 billion in inflows in the new, combined Global Wealth Management (GWM) business.

    Iqbal Khan, as the head of the business, has a clear recipe for growth. In meeting employees working in various regions around the world, he reduced everything to three words: NNM, or Net New Money.

    According to Jefferies analyst Flora Bocahut, the bank needs to report a positive attributable net profit result together with declining risk-weighted asset (RWA) levels in order to achieve its targeted return on common equity Tier 1 levels. In the second quarter, RWAs fell by about $9 billion.

    Michael Klien is also focusing on attributable net profit, saying it will be an important figure. UBS is expected to break even in the quarter while seeing a return to profitability in the second half. According to him, the analyst consensus is currently too low.

    UBS can curry favor if it manages to cut risk-weighted assets quickly. The focus here will be on non-core and legacy businesses, mainly in Credit Suisse, headed by Beatriz Martin Jimenez. By 2026, the level of capital consumption in that business is expected to fall significantly.

    The investment bank is not expected to have a stellar quarter, particularly given the performance seen at the major US institutions. The Swiss business, however, could turn out to be a bright spot.

    Many will pay intense attention to costs. The numbers in the second half didn’t much impress investors. It is expected that job cuts and integration costs, particularly at Credit Suisse’s investment bank, will have an impact.

    That should also be reflected in headcount numbers globally. At the end of August, they were down by about 8,000, a number that includes both voluntary and involuntary departures.

    UBS is in the middle of an arduous integration process and job cuts, costs and further risk mitigation measures are likely to remain overarching themes in the next few quarters.

    The integration of Credit Suisse resulted in its business performance disclosures being consolidated and simplified, making it extremely difficult to make comparisons with previous quarters and years. However, starting in the third quarter they are expected to be included in the UBS divisional numbers (GWM, Personal & Corporate Banking (the Swiss business), Asset Management, and Investment Bank. Credit Suisse’s so-called bad bank will be reported in the abovementioned non-core and legacy business.

    It is questionable right now whether the quarterly numbers will help lift the bank’s share price. They have risen as high as  23.80 francs recently and currently, trade in the region of 21.70 francs.

  • Gold prices decline slightly

    Gold prices decline slightly

    SJC gold price dropped 0.07% to VND69.75 million (US$2,864.12) per tael on Tuesday morning.

    Gold ring price downed 0.08% to VND57.3 million per tael. A tael equals 37.5 grams or 1.2 ounces.

    Globally, gold prices held near their highest levels in more than a week on Wednesday as comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials suggested that a recent surge in Treasury yields might reduce the need for more rate hikes, sending the dollar lower.

    Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,860.97 per ounce by 0136 GMT, having hit its highest level since Sept. 29 on Tuesday. U.S. gold futures held their ground at $1,874.50.

    Bloomberg said Wednesday that a slump in gold prices to a seven-month low in India may stimulate demand in the current festive season, when people traditionally buy more coins and ornaments.

    Strong purchases during the October-December festival period, considered an auspicious time to own and wear gold, may underpin the global market.

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  • Eximbank names new acting CEO

    Eximbank names new acting CEO

    Lender Eximbank has appointed Nguyen Hoang Hai as acting CEO for a year to replace Tran Tan Loc who resigned Monday.

    Hai, 45, who has worked for ABBank and EVN Finance, had become deputy CEO of Eximbank in early August.

    Loc remains a director.

    Also on Tuesday the bank dismissed another deputy CEO, Pham Quang Dung.

    Last month it had appointed Nguyen Canh Anh as a director. He too has worked for EVN Finance in the past.

    It has been a game of musical chairs for the Eximbank leadership in recent years.

    Do Ha Phuong became its chairwoman in June in place of Luong Thi Cam Tu, who had only taken over in February 2022.

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  • UBS Helps European Banks Leave US Peers in the Dust

    UBS Helps European Banks Leave US Peers in the Dust

    European banks are more profitable than American ones for the first time in ten years. A study points to UBS being a key reason for that.

    The elite of Wall Street usually have their nose well ahead of the game in the perpetual battle between European and US finance industry giants. Or at least they did until the first half of this year. But now the winds have shifted, with a new EY analysis (German only) showing that profits for the main European banks have grown much faster than their American-based counterparts.

    Much of this was, of course, driven by UBS’s forced takeover of Credit Suisse, which returned the bank to the top of the heap on the continent. But beyond that, most of the banks on this side of the pond benefited handsomely from the European Central Bank’s move to sharply increase rates, which has helped fatten up interest rate margins.

    The cumulated net profit of the ten largest banks (going by balance sheet size) rose by 80 percent to 75 billion euros, according to EY. By contrast, US-based institutions saw profits rise by only 7 percent to about 82 billion euros. In Europe, UBS reported the most first-half profit at 27.4 billion euros ($29 billion in the second quarter alone, mainly related to negative goodwill from Credit Suisse) while in the US, JP Morgan led the pack with 24.8 billion euros in the first six months of the year (reported as $27.1 billion).

    There was also a significant change in general levels of profitability, with the rates of return on equity for European banks being at 15.5 percent at the end of June, corresponding to a 5.9 percentage point increase from the same period a year earlier. It was also by far the highest level of the last ten years. In fact, it was the first time in a decade that US banks posted lower RoE of 12.6 percent than their top ten European counterparts.

    Much of this was also due to UBS, which by itself would have recorded a more modest profit of 2 billion francs (same in euros) without the impact of having to rescue Switzerland’s second-largest bank.

    These positive trends are also having an impact on market capitalization levels. Since the beginning of the year, the value of European banks was up 14 percent at the end of August to sit at a heady 522.5 billion euros. In contrast, the cumulative market of the largest American banks fell by 6 percent to 1.15 trillion euros.

    On the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX) the same was true. Since the start of July, UBS’s shares have only known one direction – up. Over the past three months, the shares have risen by almost 30 percent.

  • Citi Launches Institutional Token Services

    Citi Launches Institutional Token Services

    Citi aims to offer token services in the form of digital coins, to improve its cash management and trade finance operations.

    According to an emailed statement, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) has launched the creation and pilot of Citi Token Services. The US lender will offer tokenized deposits – effectively transferable digital coins that act as claims against the bank – to support institutional clients’ cash management and trade finance needs.

    The development of Citi Token Services is part of our journey to deliver real-time, always-on, next-generation transaction banking services to our institutional clients, said global head of services Shahmir Khaliq.

    Previously, Citi partnered with shipping giant Maersk and an unnamed canal authority to digitize a solution that serves the same purpose as bank guarantees and letters of credit in the trade finance ecosystem.

    We are pleased to have collaborated with Citi in the successful test pilots for the guarantee solution using digitized tokens and smart contracts. The innovative solution has promising applications for trade finance, said Marie-Laure Martin, regional treasury manager for the Americas at Maersk.

  • Techcombank chairman’s daughter buys 82 mln TCB shares

    Techcombank chairman’s daughter buys 82 mln TCB shares

    Ho Thuy Anh, daughter of Techcombank (TCB) chairman Ho Hung Anh, has bought 82 million TCB shares worth at least US$110.1 million.
    The transaction, completed between Sept. 5-8, will increase her stakes in Vietnam’s largest private bank from 0.64% to 2.97%.

    As of the end of June, the chairman Hung Anh held 39.3 million TCB shares, or 1.1% stake in the lender. His family currently holds 621 million TCB shares, a 17.7% stake.

    In the four-day period Sep5-8, a total of 83.3 million TCB shares changed hands in put-through transactions at two trading sessions on Sept. 5 and Sept. 8.

    Specifically, the Sept. 5 session saw 37.5 million TCB shares worth VND1.2 trillion (US$50.8 million) traded, and the Sept. 8 session saw 45.8 million shares change hands worth a total VND1.53 trillion.

    Currently, the market price of TCB shares has been fluctuating around VND35,000 per share, 27% higher than the beginning of this year.

    The bank’s profit was VND11.3 trillion in the first half of this year, a year-on-year decline of 20%, mainly due to difficulties accessing corporate bonds and real projects’ struggles attaining credit.

    After being the second-biggest profit maker among commercial banks in Vietnam for years, Techcombank fell to fifth place in profit rankings in the first six months of this year.

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  • UBS Job Cuts Hit US Investment Bankers

    UBS Job Cuts Hit US Investment Bankers

    The reorganization of UBS investment banking is proceeding. It’s eliminated some duplicate US staffing, but the big cutback is looming.

    According to a Bloomberg report, UBS has eliminated about a dozen investment banking jobs in the US in connection with the integration of Credit Suisse. The bank declined to comment to the news outlet on the matter.

    According to the sources who asked not to be named, many of the affected positions are in overlapping areas. No names were given.

    If the report is true, the reorganization of traditional investment banking with corporate advisory and capital market transactions is proceeding. UBS is trying to combine the best of both banking worlds, but when it comes to Credit Suisse trading, UBS will show little mercy and will wind up the unit.

    At the same time, numerous UBS investment bankers in New York are about to move, with the entire team decamping to the former Credit Suisse offices at 11 Madison Avenue.