HANOI – The Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB) is expected to cut interest rates worth VND1 trillion for customers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in the last five months of the year, said an MB representative.
Pham Nhu Anh, a board member of the bank, said that since the beginning of this year, the bank has introduced interest exemptions and reductions, and extended principal repayments in line with the State Bank of Vietnam’s guidelines to support customers affected by the pandemic.
By the middle of this month, MB had cut interest rates worth VND400 billion for customers. By the end of this month, it would continue to cut an additional VND300 billion and another VND300 billion in the remaining months of this year.
The bank has lowered interest rates by 0.5-1.5 percentage points depending on customer groups and how severely they are impacted by the pandemic. Around VND70 trillion in outstanding loans of individual customers and VND50 trillion of corporate customers was subject to lower interest rates.
Aside from lowering interest rates, MB has offered new loan packages with interest rates being 0.5-1.5 percentage points lower than the previous normal rate schedule. With the new products and services, the bank has adjusted down interest rates for individual and corporate customers.
Given the worsening Covid situation, to support customers and maintain credit flows during the stay-at-home period, MB has made an agreement with customers, shifting from one-on-one to online transactions.
Further, the bank has also upgraded two platforms for customers, namely MBBank App for individual customers and Biz MBBank for corporate customers, aimed at helping customers get easier access to credit from the bank on these two online platforms.