Sustained Growth, Ensured Liquidity
In the context of the global and Vietnamese economies facing many difficulties and challenges transitioning from 2023, VPBank has maintained its strategy of sustainable growth, ensuring liquidity safety and adhering to the quarterly profit targets set at the beginning of the year.
At the end of the first quarter, VPBank‘s consolidated credit grew by 2.1% compared to the beginning of the year, higher than the industry average of 1.3%, and increased by nearly 22% compared to the same period, reaching nearly 613 trillion VND. In particular, the SME segment has marked a growth of nearly 14%, thanks to the promotion of the strategy of attracting new customers and digitizing loan procedures. The Retail Customer (RC) segment continued to leverage its traditional strengths with outstanding loans reaching over 240 trillion VND, marked by products such as business loans and credit cards, increasing by 3.4% and 4% respectively compared to the beginning of the year. Notably, the home loan segment recorded a growth of 5%, accounting for 51% of total home loans, indicating a gradual recovery of the real estate market.
Along with the growth in credit scale, customer deposits and the bank’s consolidated certificates of deposit increased by 2.4% compared to the end of 2023 and by more than 21% compared to the same period, contributing to solidifying the balance sheet’s effectiveness. The solid capital foundation built in 2023, along with abundant liquidity, has contributed to optimizing VPBank‘s cost of funds (CoF) in each quarter. As of March 31, the consolidated bank’s cost of capital decreased to below 5% compared to the average of over 6% in the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2023, shaping a downward trend in each quarter.
Through ¼ of 2024, VPBank recorded a consolidated profit before tax (PBT) of nearly 4.2 trillion VND, an increase of nearly 66% compared to the previous quarter and 64% compared to the same period. At the parent bank, the PBT of the first quarter reached over 4.9 trillion VND, almost doubling compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, with total operating income increasing by 15% and net interest income increasing by 25% compared to the same period.
Combining the parent bank’s profit with VPBankS and OPES, VPBank earned nearly 5,200 billion VND, almost doubling compared to the last quarter of 2023.
At FE Credit, continuing the restructuring activities from 2023, the consumer finance arm leveraged its advantages from the group model strategy, focused on portfolio management, and aimed for automation to minimize operating costs and increase productivity. As a result, the company’s disbursed sales have continuously improved, with the first quarter of the year increasing by 29% compared to the average for 2023. And with the support of strategic partner SMBC and the backing of the parent bank, FE Credit is expected to soon regain its inherent growth cycle, aiming for positive growth in 2024 and sustainable growth in the medium to long term.
Laying the Foundation for Sustainable Growth
In an effort to digitize the ecosystem to pave the way for sustainable growth in the next phase, the parent bank and its subsidiaries continue to invest, enhance digital transformation, and improve digital infrastructure to optimize operating costs, diversify products, and expand their customer base.
Notable efforts include the recent enhancements to the parent bank’s digital banking platform. In the first quarter of the year, the parent bank pioneered the deployment of a new authentication method for international cardholders’ online transactions, called Out of Band (OOB), on the VPBank NEO digital banking platform. This method helps enhance security and improve the international card transaction experience. In addition, the Card Zone feature, which brings together card utilities on the VPBank NEO app, has provided users with seamless and quick experiences, helping to attract new customer segments for the bank.
In the first three months of 2024, the number of cumulative registered accounts on VPBank NEO reached nearly 9.4 million with over 124 million transactions.
Earlier in 2023, VPBank NEO launched over 120 new products and services, bringing the total number of features and products to 250. Key features and products include Loan On Card, ShopQR, Tap & Pay, Apple Pay, eKYC…, allowing customers to easily manage and fulfill financial transaction requests on a single app.
The development and upgrading of banking solutions and services on digital channels have helped VPBank improve its operating efficiency by optimizing operating costs. The parent bank’s cost-to-income ratio (CIR) decreased to 24.6% in the first quarter of 2024 (a significant decrease compared to 26.1% in 2023).
Meanwhile, at VPBankS, the securities company has actively built a platform of specialized products and services, “tailor-made” to each investor’s risk appetite, aiming to become a one-stop shop for all investors by 2026. The new version of NEO Invest website was recently launched, providing professional and active investors with a simple and convenient trading platform, offering added value in customers’ investment journeys.
Meanwhile, OPES is gradually building a digital insurance platform and brand, aiming to digitize the entire customer experience journey, officially joining the digital transformation race in the insurance industry to optimize revenue and profit, while keeping pace with the VPBank ecosystem.
