0.5 percent to a high of 1 percent in response to a dramatic rise in the
global gold market last week.
The trend of increasing gold deposit interest rates was iniated by large banks but is now picking up in smaller banks.
The highest increase, 1.1 percent per year, in three-month gold deposit
interest rates came from the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB). Phuong Nam
Joint Stock Commercial Bank raised their interest rates to 1 percent,
from a stable 0.55 percent, based on a different set of terms; Sacombank
has doubled its three-month gold deposits interest rates to 1 percent;
and Dai A Joint Stock Commercial Bank hiked up their interest rate to at
least 0.15 – 0.6 percent.
An official at a small
commercial bank revealed that his company needed to increase gold
deposit interest rates in order to stave off competition from other
banks.
Deputy Director of ACB Do Minh Toan said that many
customers believed that the price of gold was too high and expected gold
prices to drop soon. As a result, they borrowed gold with a low lending
interest rate. To avoid risks, some customers paid premiums to buy
insurance for gold borrowing.
General Secretary of the
Vietnam Banks Association Duong Thu Huong said that increasing interest
rates may be a mechanism for banks to comply with the State Bank of
Vietnam 's new guidelines requiring banks to raise their capital
adequacy ratio from 8 to 9 percent.
Senior consultant of
the World Gold Council Huynh Trung Khanh said that commercial banks and
investors should be cautious as gold prices will continue to increase
due to high global demand for gold.
Experts said gold was
in short supply because businesses collected gold in their domestic
markets for export. According to the General Statistics Office,
Vietnam exported 1.34 billion USD worth of gold, equivalent to about
36 tonnes. In August alone, Viet Nam exported 768 million USD in
gemstones and precious metals, most of which was gold. However, gold
imports were scarce in comparison leading to a gold supply shortage in
the domestic maret./.
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