The banking sector has made a significant contribution to the country's overall achievements over the past five years

The banking sector has achieved many important accomplishments

In his speech at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that in 2025 and throughout the term, the world situation is changing very rapidly and unpredictably, affecting the overall development of the world, including Vietnam. We have identified more difficulties and challenges than opportunities and advantages in order to prepare ourselves mentally and energetically to cope with the situation, especially in terms of flexibility in policy management and the country's development orientation.

Looking back on the results of the past five years, the Prime Minister affirmed that we have the right to be proud. Our country has maintained political stability, macroeconomic stability, controlled inflation, ensured major economic balances; political and social stability, and improved people's lives. In 2025, our country faced many difficulties, especially the US tariff policy and natural disasters, but we still managed flexibly and effectively, maintaining our growth targets and contributing to the realization of the two 100-year strategic goals. On behalf of the Party and State leadership, the Prime Minister sincerely commended, highly appreciated, and thanked the State Bank of Vietnam in particular and the banking sector in general for their contributions to the country's overall achievements over the past five years, especially in 2025.

At the conference, the Prime Minister summarized the achievements of the banking sector in 32 words: transparent institutions, pioneering infrastructure; flexible policies, reasonable management, effective solutions; banking development, people's benefits, national self-reliance.

"The State Bank has made an important and positive contribution to the overall achievements of the economy as a whole through its role in managing monetary policy and banking activities, ensuring the safety of the system and the security of the country's currency and foreign exchange. there is a positive contribution from the system of credit institutions in their role as the main channel for capital supply and meeting the society's increasingly high demand for banking services," the Prime Minister affirmed.

Delving deeper into each achievement, the Prime Minister noted that in terms of "streamlined institutions," the banking sector has continued to meet and exceed the Government's annual targets for reducing and simplifying administrative procedures. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has reduced business regulations by 39% during the 2021-2024 period, exceeding the 20% target set in Resolution 68/NQ-CP. In 2025, it will continue to reduce and simplify 90.3% of administrative procedures; reduce 33.1% of business conditions; 32.8% of days for resolving administrative procedures; and 31.5% of compliance costs - exceeding the 30% target for all indicators in Resolution 66/NQ-CP. Recently, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) officially launched an additional 32 fully online public services on the National Public Service Portal.

Regarding "pioneering infrastructure," the banking sector continues to maintain its leading position in the national digital transformation process and the development of cashless payments. Cashless payments are estimated to grow by an average of 70% in volume and 24% in value over the five-year period from 2021 to 2025. in 2025, the value of cashless payments through the banking system is estimated to be over 27 times the GDP; at the same time, focus on shortening the processing procedures for transactions, improving the quality of banking services, and promoting digital transformation for all sectors and fields.

Regarding "flexible policies," the SBV always implements flexible and effective policies; maintaining policy interest rates to create low-cost capital for credit institutions and support the economy. In parallel, the SBV requires credit institutions to reduce costs and digitalize to lower actual lending rates; implement large-scale preferential credit packages such as the VND 500 trillion program for infrastructure and digital technology lending for the 2025-2030 period with interest rates 1-1.5%/year lower than the average; The program for lending to agriculture, forestry, and fisheries has been expanded four times to 12 times its original size; the program for lending to link the implementation of the 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice project in the Mekong Delta.

Regarding "reasonable management," the SBV has skillfully performed its duties, controlled inflation, and promoted growth; the commercial banking system has strived to ensure capital for the economy, contributing to maintaining macroeconomic stability, maintaining a reasonable exchange rate, and helping to control public debt, government debt, and foreign debt. The foreign exchange market is stable; as of December 24, 2025, outstanding credit is approximately VND 18.4 million billion, an increase of 17.87% compared to the end of 2024, with credit scale increasing by approximately VND 2.79 million billion in 2025.

Regarding "effective remediation," the SBV has advised the Government to handle the situation in a thorough and effective manner by mandatorily transferring four weak banks to stronger banks based on legal regulations. This ensures the interests and rights of depositors in banks with positive changes, without causing disruption or affecting the system. In addition, the banking industry has also implemented many timely and effective solutions to enhance transaction security and safety in order to reduce fraud, shifting from passive anti-fraud to proactive prevention through digital identity and financial infrastructure. As of December 19, 2025, biometric verification has been conducted on more than 142.5 million individual customer records and more than 1.5 million organizational records; the number of individual customers who have lost money to fraud has decreased by 57%, and the number of accounts receiving fraudulent money has decreased by 47% after a short period of implementation.

Regarding "development banks," the restructuring of the credit institution system, improving operational efficiency, and addressing bad debt during the 2021-2025 period continued to achieve significant progress. Bad debts were focused on and controlled (the ratio of on-balance-sheet bad debts was below 2%); the financial capacity, business efficiency, and competitiveness of credit institutions were gradually improved. By the end of September 2025, the total assets of the system reached over VND 25.8 million billion, an increase of 84.4% compared to the end of 2020. The charter capital of the entire system reached over VND 1.2 million billion, an increase of 82.4%. The equity capital of the entire system reached over VND 1.58 million billion, an increase of 52.7% compared to the end of 2020.

In terms of "benefits for the people," through the innovation of banking activities, the people have gained wider access to financial services and benefited from interest rates; the percentage of adults with bank accounts reached 86.97%, a significant increase compared to 68.44% in 2020.

In addition, social security programs and programs to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses have been effectively implemented with the joint efforts and active contributions of commercial banks, which have allocated part of their resources and saved costs to support these programs. During the Covid-19 prevention and control period alone, the banking sector contributed approximately VND 4,200 billion; for the program to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses, it contributed over VND 1,800 billion, playing an important role in helping the program reach its goal ahead of schedule.

Regarding "self-reliance," the SBV has fulfilled its mission of contributing to the country's self-reliance and overcoming the "headwinds" of the world; this is an extremely important task. The banks' credit packages have made an important contribution to the country's development.

Alongside the achievements, the Prime Minister frankly acknowledged a number of difficult issues and major challenges that the banking sector needs to overcome, such as: supporting enterprises, especially SMEs, in accessing loans; exchange rates and the gold market remain difficult; The rapid digital transformation of the banking sector also faces many new difficulties and challenges, such as high-tech crime and recent complex developments in electronic payments with new and more sophisticated methods.

Regarding lessons learned, the Prime Minister requested that the banking sector remain calm in the face of unpredictable and unforeseeable fluctuations in order to identify unexpected and sudden difficulties and challenges. Policy changes and transitions must have a roadmap, steps, and appropriate solutions: takeoff must accelerate and break through to fly high and far; landing must be soft, flexible, skillful, and safe. Policy management must be proactive, flexible, timely, and effective; it must be combined with other policies.

The banking sector contributes to macroeconomic stability, inflation control, and double-digit growth.

The year 2026 is a significant year for the implementation of the Resolution of the 14th Party Congress, the Congress of the Banking Industry Party Committee, and the Congress of the Government Party Committee, especially in terms of the goals of macroeconomic stability, inflation control, growth promotion, ensuring major economic balances, and improving the material and spiritual lives of the people. Therefore, the banking sector must contribute to macroeconomic stability and inflation control; promote double-digit growth and ensure major economic balances.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the guiding principle must be proactive, timely, flexible, and effective, combined with an expansionary fiscal policy that focuses on key areas. The implementation of this policy must have a synergistic effect with other policies, creating the combined strength of the entire system, ministries, and sectors. Raise awareness and capacity, strengthen determination, increase efforts, improve efficiency, take decisive action with a clear focus and priorities; assign 6 clear points: clear people, clear tasks, clear responsibilities, clear authority, clear time, clear results.

The Prime Minister also outlined key areas for the banking sector to focus on. First, it is necessary to focus on implementing the Resolution of the 14th National Congress, the Resolutions and Conclusions of the Politburo, the Secretariat, the National Assembly, the Government, and the Prime Minister's directives; create a stronger breakthrough in institutional and administrative reform in the monetary and banking sectors to meet the country's development requirements. Effectively manage banking activities in international financial centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

All banking activities must be innovative and breakthrough, contributing to the consistent implementation of the objectives of macroeconomic stability, inflation control, and ensuring the major balances of the economy; controlling all types of debt. This is an important task and goal of the banking sector. Strongly promote growth and investment: invest in science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, and contribute to the effective implementation of the Politburo's Resolutions. According to the Prime Minister, given the current situation, research should be conducted to select an appropriate time to remove credit limits, while in the coming period, the mechanism for allocating credit growth limits should continue to be implemented as in 2025 based on the ranking of banks. Management should be linked to credit rating results, thereby applying flexible and appropriate measures to each credit institution and strictly enforcing rewards and penalties. At the same time, banks controlling risks must comply with international practices; control using market tools to ensure healthy and sustainable development without any oversights; control credit flows into high-risk areas such as real estate; Ensure the safety of the monetary, credit, and banking systems; at the same time, ensure that there are always sufficient and appropriate tools and continue to improve the legal framework, limiting intervention by administrative measures. On that basis, ensure the safety of each credit institution, thereby ensuring the safety of the entire system.

In addition, the Prime Minister also requested that the banking sector continue to promote the development of science and technology, innovation, and national digital transformation. Credit flows must also serve this purpose. Build a shared database that is "accurate, complete, clean, and live"; contribute to the effective implementation of social security policies, doing things correctly, accurately, and in an organized manner; overcome the consequences and restructure weak credit institutions; if something has been done well, it must be done even better; do not allow weaknesses to occur; in particular, the SCB bank must be dealt with decisively.

The Prime Minister also requested that the banking sector focus on effectively implementing internal tasks; strengthening digital transformation, focusing on human resources, ensuring a team of dedicated, visionary, talented, and capable officials; improving working methods, and always innovating. Because resources stem from thinking and vision, motivation stems from innovation and creativity, and strength stems from the people and businesses. "The spirit is that no matter how difficult it is, we must overcome it with a broad vision, deep thinking, proactivity, flexibility, creativity, and efficiency. Banks are always at the forefront of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation. With the right mindset, always maintain balance, calmness, perseverance, determination, confidence, and never be satisfied with the results achieved; you must surpass yourself."

At the conference, on behalf of the Party and State leadership, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh awarded the Labor Medal, the title of National Emulation Warrior, and the Prime Minister's Certificate of Merit to a number of individuals in the banking industry.