A lot of banks are refusing to declare their monthly business results as the happenings of the monetary market have been badly affecting their operations. Last year, when the national economy performed well, and helped banks reap fat profit, banks regularly made their business public. However, the situation seems to be quite different this year. Though banks still made profit in the first months of the year, their operations were not as prosperous as last year.

Banks selling US dollar for Vietnamese dong at a higher rate than their posted rate will be "strictly punished," the State Bank of Viet Nam has said. Banks have justified the practice, saying they are short of US dollars, and as a result, must buy the dollar from different sources at a higher price than the official rate.

The Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) has decided to list on the bourse in the third quarter of the year instead of June as previously planned, due to unfulfilled procedures.

Commercial banks this week continued raising long-term deposit interest rates, to around 18.5 per cent per year, in an attempt to attract new deposits, however, depositors are not likely to join in long-term saving during the current period of interest rate changes.

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in Vietnam has officially opened its biggest branch to date in Ha Noi. The new branch is dedicated to serving the bank’s growing number of personal and commercial customers in the capital city, said a press release on June 17 by the HSBC in Hong Kong

It turns out that SCIC, the most powerful corporation in Vietnam, which is now managing thousands of billions of VND worth of capital the state invests in enterprises, still does not have a clear mechanism for its operations.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on June 17 gave the go- ahead to two local commercial banks to issue bonds and long-term valuable papers in Vietnam dong this year. Under Decision 1357/QD-NHNN signed by the SBV Governor, the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank is permitted to release 3 trillion VND worth of bonds.

The Vietnamese legal system regulates that the domestic currency (VND) is to be used in all transactions, but that several businesses representing foreign parent companies have recently been asking for payments in US dollars (US$) is a violation of Vietnamese law.

The government has given the nod to the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines to sell 10-20 percent of its stock to foreign strategic partners.

The State will retain a stake of between 70-80 percent.

The Khanh Viet Corp (Khatoco) supplies about 3,000 tonnes of ostrich meat to the local market every year. Currently, ostrich meat is priced between 150,000 VND (9.4 USD) to 170,000 VND (10.63 USD) per kilogram.