Two third-quarter financial statements analysed by VnExpress on 25 October show how differently Vietnamese lenders are faring this year. Saigon Bank for Industry and Trade (Saigonbank) made a pre-tax profit of VND66 billion in the first nine months, down 75% from a year earlier and only just over 20% of its full-year target, while both its loan book and its customer deposits shrank. Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank), by contrast, earned net income of almost VND1.7 trillion from insurance over the same nine months, more than double the VND800 billion of a year earlier.
Saigonbank squeezed by funding costs
VnExpress puts Saigonbank's slump down to funding costs rising faster than income: nine-month interest income grew 10%, but interest expenses jumped 25%. Operating costs also went up, and the bank came under pressure to set aside provisions for special VAMC bonds.
Saigonbank is one of the smaller banks in the system, with total assets of about VND35,370 billion at the end of the third quarter, flat since the start of the year. The key figures:
| Indicator | Figure | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Nine-month pre-tax profit | VND66 billion | Down 75% year on year |
| Total assets, end of Q3 | About VND35,370 billion | Flat since January |
| Customer loans, end of September | VND21,755 billion | Down 1% |
| Customer deposits, end of September | VND25,170 billion | Down more than 4% |
| Individual deposits | Down more than VND1,380 billion, nearly 8% | |
| Special VAMC bonds (face value) | VND1,245 billion | Up from VND500 billion in January |
| Bad-debt ratio under Circular 31 | 2.35% | |
| Bad-debt ratio on customer loans only | About 3.06% | |
| Bad-debt coverage | About 35% |
Source: VnExpress.
The Circular 31 ratio that Saigonbank discloses also takes in deposits and certain other credit exposures; measured against customer loans alone, bad debt is estimated at about 3.06%. Group 5 debt, the loans most likely to be lost, fell, but group 3 and group 4 debt rose sharply, and coverage of around 35% is far below the system average.
Techcombank's insurance comeback
According to its consolidated financial statements, as reported by VnExpress, Techcombank took in VND2,150 billion from insurance services in the first nine months, 2.4 times the year-earlier figure and nearly 60% more than in the whole of last year. After VND430 billion of insurance costs, net income from the business came to almost VND1.7 trillion, and insurance's share of total service income rose from 10% to 15%.
How the business has moved, based on the figures VnExpress cites:
| Period | Insurance income |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Peak of more than VND1,750 billion, mainly from exclusive bancassurance with Manulife |
| The next two years | Sharp falls amid a market-wide insurance crisis |
| 2025 | Recovery |
| First nine months of 2026 | VND2,150 billion, above the highest level recorded in 2020-2025 |
During the Manulife years, Techcombank led the market in insurance premium revenue. It later ended the exclusive partnership after 10 years and treated the break as a chance to rebuild its insurance business around a strategy of differentiation that is hard to copy. It now holds controlling stakes in two insurers set up within the past two years: Bao hiem Nhan tho Ky thuong, a life insurer in which it owns 80%, and Bao hiem Phi nhan tho Techcombank, a non-life insurer in which it owns 68%.
What to watch
With just over 20% of its annual profit target reached after nine months, Saigonbank enters the fourth quarter with a large gap to close. Its group 3 and group 4 debt, its coverage ratio and its provisions for VAMC bonds are the numbers to watch in the next report. For Techcombank, the question is whether the insurance momentum holds while both of its in-house insurers were set up only within the past two years.
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