HCMC - With the ratio of current account, savings account (CASA) having dropped sharply in the last nine months, many banks have raised interest rates for demand savings and deposits to attract more cash since the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) recently hiked key interest rates.

The CASA ratio is important to banks as the higher it is, the more opportunities they will have to increase their profit margin and competitiveness. Eighteen of 27 banks that have announced their financial reports has a lower CASA ratio, including those taking the lead in attracting demand deposits such as Techcombank. Till the end of the third quarter this year, Techcombank maintained its CASA ratio at 46.5%, the highest in the banking system despite a slight decline against the previous quarter. LienVietPostBank, BacABank, MB and VPBank also have a CASA ratio fall by 3-3.8 percentage points. KienLongBank’s CASA ratio plunged to 9.2% from 15.5%, the lowest in the banking sector. The sharp decrease of demand deposits is attributed to the steep deposit interest rate spike. To cope with the situation, several banks have revised up interest rates to maintain a CASA ratio high enough to keep them competitive. Previously, the interest rate for demand deposits was capped at 0.1-0.2% per annum. It has now risen to 1% per year at several banks such as Kienlongbank, BacABank, NamABank, NCB, MSB, SCB, Techcombank and VPbank. Other banks such as OCB, BaoVietBank, PVcomBank, TPBank and Agribank have also adjusted up annual interest rates for demand deposits to 0.5% to 0.9%. The banks that offer the lowest interest rates for demand deposits at 0.1-0.2% include Vietcombank, VietinBank and BIDV.