Series of banks approved to raise capital

On June 3, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) approved Vietbank (Vietnam Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank) to increase its charter capital by up to VND 3,781 billion (approx. USD 149 million) through two stock issuance phases to existing shareholders.

Specifically, Vietbank will raise VND 1,071 billion from capital surplus and VND 2,709 billion from a share issuance to existing shareholders. Following this, Vietbank’s charter capital will rise from VND 7,139 billion to approximately VND 10,919.7 billion (approx. USD 431 million).

Vietbank stated that the new capital will be used to invest in fixed assets, information technology systems, business capital, and network expansion.

Previously, the SBV approved a capital hike for NCB (National Citizen Bank), increasing its charter capital from VND 11,780 billion to VND 19,280 billion (approx. USD 763 million).

According to the capital plan approved at NCB’s 2025 annual general meeting, the bank will issue 750 million shares privately at a minimum price of VND 10,000 each to raise up to VND 7,500 billion (approx. USD 297 million).

With this, NCB has twice increased its capital in two years, surpassing Sacombank and Eximbank in charter capital size.

Meanwhile, ACB was also approved to raise capital by nearly VND 6,700 billion (approx. USD 265 million) via dividend stock issuance. ACB will issue 670 million new shares to pay dividends at a 15% rate, raising its charter capital from VND 44,667 billion to a maximum of VND 51,367 billion (approx. USD 2 billion), approaching Agribank's eighth place (VND 51,615 billion).

Similarly, VIB has been permitted to increase capital by nearly VND 4,300 billion (approx. USD 170 million) through issuing over 417 million shares to shareholders at a 14% rate, plus 7.8 million bonus shares to employees. This will bring VIB’s charter capital from over VND 29,700 billion to more than VND 34,000 billion (approx. USD 1.34 billion).

Top 10 banks show significant shifts in charter capital

Several other banks are preparing to raise capital under 2025 shareholder-approved plans. Nam A Bank plans to increase its capital from VND 13,700 billion to over VND 18,000 billion via dividend shares and ESOP issuance.

At VietinBank, the general meeting approved issuing 2.4 billion shares as dividends at a 44.64% rate, increasing charter capital from VND 53,700 billion to VND 77,671 billion (approx. USD 3.1 billion).

Earlier, Vietcombank issued more than 2.76 billion shares to pay dividends, raising its charter capital from VND 55,891 billion to VND 83,557 billion (approx. USD 3.3 billion), overtaking VPBank as the bank with the largest charter capital.

VPBank ranks second with VND 79,339 billion (approx. USD 3.1 billion), followed by Techcombank (VND 70,450 billion), MB (VND 61,022 billion), BIDV (VND 57,004 billion), and VietinBank (VND 53,700 billion).

Agribank ranks seventh with VND 51,638 billion, and ACB eighth with VND 51,367 billion. Rounding out the top 10 are SHB (VND 40,657 billion) and HDBank (VND 35,101 billion).

Notably, LPBank (VND 29,873 billion) and VIB (VND 29,791 billion) have fallen out of the top 10 banks by charter capital as of March 31, 2025.

Raising charter capital is crucial for banks to strengthen their capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and expand lending capacity.

The SBV has also published a draft circular on minimum capital adequacy ratios for commercial banks and foreign bank branches. Under the Law on Credit Institutions, the minimum CAR is 8%, subject to adjustment by the SBV Governor. The new draft proposes gradually raising the minimum CAR to 10.5% by 2033.

Banks that fail to meet the 8% CAR threshold will not be allowed to pay cash dividends.

Tuan Nguyen