The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has provided loans worthnearly 8.6 trillion VND (400 million USD) for 400,000 impoverishedhouseholds and students social programmes in the first quarter.

Ofthe amount, loans worth 1.9 trillion VND (88.3 million USD) were givento impoverished families, 2.9 trillion VND (134.8 million USD) tonearly-impoverished, 1.5 trillion VND (69.8 million USD) to watersanitation and environmental hygiene programmes, 997 billion VND (46.4million USD) to businesses in disadvantaged areas and 864 billion VND(40.2 million USD) to students.

To date, VBSP hastaken numerous measures to reinforce its credit quality. By March 31,the bank’s capital reached 136 trillion VND (6.3 billion USD) and debitbalance stood at 131.5 trillion VND (6.1 billion USD), accounting for 27percent of the yearly plan.

Instruction 40-CT/TW on enhancingParty leadership over social policy-benefiting credit has fuelledpositive change in credit management at the local level and contributedto improvements in credit quality.

Governor of the State Bank ofVietnam (SVB) and Chairman of the VBSP’s Board of Directors Nguyen VanBinh said that to increase debit balance growth to 10 percent, VBSPneeds to enact Government instructions and collaborate with relevantministries and agencies for further recommendations.

He alsohighlighted the necessity of tracking market movement and issue bonds toensure capital for debit balance growth, saying the bank should enhanceinspection and supervision to detect and tackle shortcomings.-VNA