Interest rates tend to increase

Many banks keep the same or lower interest rates. Photo: ST

According to a survey, there are two banks on the market that have adjusted deposit rates upwards, including Techcombank and VPBank.

Techcombank has sharply increased deposit rates for all terms, generally 0.4-0.7%age points higher. For example, in the case of ordinary customers, under 50 years old with a deposit of less than VND1 billion, the 3-month interest rate increased to 3.2% each year, while the 6-month term increased to 4.4% each year.

At VPBank, although the deposit interest rates for 1-month and 6-month terms and more are unchanged, it has increased the deposit rates for 2-5 month terms, commonly 0.2 percentage points.

The rest, joint stock commercial banks tended to keep interest rates unchanged compared to February or slightly decrease by 0.1-0.2 percentage points. The group of state-owned banks, namely Vietcombank, VietinBank, Agribank and BIDV, kept the interest rates unchanged from February.

Techcombank's move to raise deposit interest rates was quite surprising because this bank often maintains the lowest deposit interest rates in most terms in the market and in the group of commercial banks.

Previously, Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC) assessed that, in the context of controlled pandemic and the implementation of Covid-19 vaccination would be positive factors to promote production and business activities returning to normal.

Besides the rebound in inflation, BVSC forecasts that the deposit interest rate is likely to increase again in the near future.

According to experts, this is normal for banks when they need capital for credit, not a general trend or a "race" on interest rates as in previous years.

BIDV's leaders recently said that in 2021, the management's point of view is the requirement for a flexible and stable monetary policy to serve the economy. Moreover, interbank interest rates are at a low level, with abundant capital from Tet, and credit has not been boosted, so interest rates in the short term cannot increase much.